The popular interpretation of knowledge can be so wrong sometimes...
On this page a collection of things that bug me.


"Everything is possible, If you really want it and believe in your self"
Do not take this literally!
What is true about this:
It's amazing what you can achieve when you act towards your goal. Especially when you can work well together with others. Don't tell yourself that you can't do something while it is within your capacities. Others will give you enough drag, don't step on your own brake, unless necessary.
What is not true about this:
Just wanting something and believing in yourself, will not make it happen.
Things that are not possible within this universe, are not possible.
Things that are possible in this universe, but not yet present, can't come instantly. They'll often need a lot of attention energy and time to grow.
If there are more forces working against than for you, it won't happen.
You have influence, but no total control, so you'll also need luck.


"Survivel of the fittest"
Is often interpret wrong, as "survivel of the most aggressive". In Dutch (I'm from the Netherlands) it's translated in "het recht van de sterkste", meaning; the right of the strongest. True's that if the most aggressive erases all the others, they are the only ones left, they survived. But aggressive isn't the key to being the fittest, the best adapted to the current situation. There are uncounable many things that can be key to being the fittest. Life on Earth is very divers, all living together (though not in a peaceful way). I don't think there are species now that can survive alone. Algee maybe. Not humans anyhow.
Funny thing about algee; after millions of years of evolution, there's still many kinds of algee, not just one superior algee. I think that is called "dynamic balance".


Murphy's law: "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong"
Yea, well, yes but... not like it will go wrong every time, not like "everything always goes wrong because of Murphy".
If there is a chance for something to go wrong, then it will eventually go wrong at least once. A lot is depending on the amount of chance, which is often hard or impossible to predict.


"Time will bring the solution"
Not so, because there is only now. Past and future are just tools of the mind. Time is about how fast things can move, which is depending on the condition of space (space with a lot of gravity for example, slows down time).
Solutions can come if the situation changes for the better, if that is possible within this universe, and that positive change can often be accelerated if you focus yourself on creating a solution. The best way to predict the "future", is to create it yourself -with the support of others.


The popular description of how a wing creates lift
Is often something like this: "Because the top of the wing is curved and the bottom is flat, the distance on top is longer and the air on top has to go faster. Fast air has less pressure, so the slower air on the bottom pushes the wing up, and this is the lift force that carries the weigh of the aircaft.
What is wrong about this explanation:
- Air doesn't have to go faster because of a longer path, there is no law in nature that states that air volumes have to reunite after being separated. In fact: the air doesn't reunite at the trailing edge of a wing.
- There is no such thing as fast air. Speed is a relative thing and not a property of mass. As fast air doesn't exists, there must be an other cause of the reduced pressure on top of a wing.
Here I wrote a page about what I think is happening with a wing in air.