Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2018 January 3

= January 3 =

Does Social Peer Pressure prevent people from stating the obvious?
If everyone is walking upside down on the south pole, does the social peer pressure from the scientific community which lives there in the south pole, prevent a good scientist from mentioning that they are all walking upside down? Perhaps the reason they do not know that they are walking upside down is because if everyone is walking upside down then from their point of view, they seems to be walking the right side up. 110.22.20.252 (talk) 06:11, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
 * On Earth, "up" is the normal vector from the (spherical) surface, therefor anybody walking on the surface is doing so "right-side-up" (unless they're walking on their hands, of course). 2606:A000:4C0C:E200:3410:B2CC:5D3A:A0AC (talk) 06:58, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
 * If the OP is serious with this question, he should sue his educational system for fraud. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 07:55, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
 * It would only be upside down relative to the north pole. Even though it is still normal for whoever is standing there, the Moon and sky will appear to have been turned around. When I travelled to Alaska recently, I noticed that the Moon was sideways on there. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 09:24, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Simply adapt the old divers trick. Get a glass of water and a straw, make some bubbles and watch where they go. Thats "up"! --Kharon (talk) 09:51, 3 January 2018 (UTC)


 * Answering the title question rather than the post: see our article about Asch conformity experiments.
 * On a side note: a look at OP's contributions makes me suspect the question is serious, although either scientific reasoning or English language is an issue. Tigraan Click here to contact me 10:02, 3 January 2018 (UTC)


 * Here's a picture of someone at the South Pole. As you can see they are not doing anything unexpected.
 * Since you're on to this how about pondering that other strange thing - how is it that people know the name of the star Betelgeuse when it is 640 light years away and nobody could ever have been there? ;-) Dmcq (talk) 10:11, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Easy! The Betelgeusians send a light-speed message around 170 CE, which Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi captured with an early version of the radio telescope, and introduced into the scientific literature of the time. Need proof? There is no earlier recorded use of the name - how else can you explain that?!?!?!11! --Stephan Schulz (talk) 15:23, 3 January 2018 (UTC)


 * Do people near to the equator realise that they are walking horizontally, and spinning slowly tumbling head-over-heels? Slightly more seriously, if map-making had been first developed by a civilisation in the southern hemisphere, then the south pole would probably have been at the top, and it would be us northerners who walk upside down without realising it.   Dbfirs  15:49, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Some old maps had east at the top.Greglocock (talk) 17:34, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
 * See South-up map orientation. I knew an Aussie GR prof at an American uni who kept one on his door in a show of Down Under pride. -- ToE 18:14, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
 * And in premodern China south was more important than north despite being in the Northern Hemisphere. Hence the south pointing chariot. Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 18:25, 3 January 2018 (UTC)

What really gets to me is why my questions are deleted from Science desk, I ask "attracting women" questions and people lay me as a troll or sociopath. But questions like these don't get deleted. Bummers. 12.130.157.65 (talk) 15:42, 3 January 2018 (UTC).
 * Lots of your questions here have been answered. I think the misconception amused people.   Db</i><i style="color: #4fc;">f</i><i style="color: #6f6;">i</i><i style="color: #4e4;">r</i><i style="color: #4a4">s</i>  15:49, 3 January 2018 (UTC)

human skeletal muscles
I have found your page that lists the human skeletal muscles. I would like to know the relative size of a muscle compared to other muscles in the body. I am a woman, so where there is a difference between male and female bodies, I'd be more interested in the female body data. Why? I have used resistance/weights exercises for years, and the usual advice is to exercise larger muscles before smaller muscles, but where is the data about muscle size/mass? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 156.99.40.14 (talk) 22:29, 3 January 2018 (UTC)
 * I did a bit of searching around, but didn't find anything useful (and didn't expect to). The size of individual muscles - however you'd want to measure it without performing an autopsy - is going to vary a lot from person to person and even side to side (the muscles on my right arm are slightly larger than the ones on my left; probably because I'm right-handed and therefore use it more). You'll occasionally see claims of longest/largest/smallest muscles (example here) but beyond that, it gets difficult to specify things. A quick look around the gym confirms that it's possible to train the body into many different forms, leading to very different muscle size ratios. Matt Deres (talk) 14:30, 4 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Which skeletal muscle? Your gluteus maximus is far larger than your pinky toe extensor. LongHairedFop (talk) 19:23, 4 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Human females have 20% less body mass on average, plus a higher fat content. But they are also shorter and have shorter limbs. So their muscles are going to be somewhat smaller than the average male's. One wonders about their proportions... And how much is cultural... Abductive  (reasoning) 21:34, 4 January 2018 (UTC)