[Basic] Skill of the week: Physics

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I don't think that follows. What an archer learns is that if you want to hit point X, you hold your bow at angle theta. They aren't necessarily taking out a protractor and measuring angle theta; they know how it should feel in their muscles when their gaze is on X. And they aren't necessarily tracing the path the arrow takes, and still less defining it as a parabola (or modified parabola).

In an actual combat situation, an archer who paused to calculate the equation of flight for an arrow would probably be dead before they got a second shot off.

An intuitive sense for how the physical world works on a macroscopic scale is implicit in practically every DX-based skill. But it's not at all the same as the ability to engage in verbal discourse about it, or draw diagrams, or solve equations. And various of the latter are the kinds of things physicists do.

Knowing that arrows travel in a curving path is a world away from knowing the mathematics that describe the path, which is where you get into actual physics. I was just reacting to the idea that medieval Europeans didn't know the first one.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

I think any experienced archer would know it. If scholars didn't it was because they had no experience with the reality of such things.

I understand that actually often happened with Medieval things where people later would think them more ignorant then they really were because the ones who wrote were either writing poetically or they had no actual experience. Whereas those who had practical experience from their profession knew better.

For instance there were chroniclers of Sluys who wrote it up like a trieme battle because they assumed that's what sea battles were supposed to be like.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by whswhs

That's not Physics. That's one of Cooking, Housekeeping, or Survival. The fact that it can be explained by physical laws is irrelevant. Lots of people can learn that you put the put "on" the fire without being able to state the physical law, without realizing that there is a physical law to be stated, or even without having the concept of physical law at all.

And conversely, if you do have the concept of physical laws or of explanations, you may come up with explanations that are quite simply wrong, like "the stone fell because its natural place is the depths of the earth" or "burning wood emits the element of phlogiston."

But I don't have a point in Cooking either, and Cooking doesn't cover the rest of the kid-level physics examples (which I didn't re-enumerate after the first mention and simply said 'and similar basic things').

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

It's that what seems trivially obvious to us isn't to most people. So if we know all this stuff from default, then how can they have worse levels with similar IQs?

We don't all have a default. Nobody is entitled to a default in anything just because the skill offers a default.

You don't get a default if you have no exposure - and for the laws of motion beyond that approximation that suffices for "natural" human endeavors, your options are actually things like

• mess around with a slo-mo camera or other clever ways of actually seeing what's going on
• pay attention in class
• other educational coverage like TV or books

If you don't get the exposure, you don't get the default.

I'm perfectly happy as a GM to deny a default for parts of a skill because you have no exposure to that part, but allowing a default for other parts.

Having a default also doesn't mean you automatically make the skill roll, either, even if you get a +4 to the roll or higher. Based on that study, a majority of people blew their skill roll on how motion works - which actually matches up fairly well with IQ 10 people, -6 default, and a modest "easy task" bonus.

[Tallor]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Actually, I'm afraid I didn't. It doesn't have complete sentences, so it takes more work for me to figure out what it's saying about each GURPS book.

I'll be more precise next time! :)

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Bruno

We don't all have a default. Nobody is entitled to a default in anything just because the skill offers a default.
...

Public school is supposed to give all those defaults. I wasn't assuming hobo Jones raised and living in the woods all his life.
It's assumed you can read and write as it's assumed you learned in public school, for another example of how I'm thinking.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Bruno

...
Having a default also doesn't mean you automatically make the skill roll, either, even if you get a +4 to the roll or higher. Based on that study, a majority of people blew their skill roll on how motion works - which actually matches up fairly well with IQ 10 people, -6 default, and a modest "easy task" bonus.

Depressingly, if we want ultra-realism, I'd say that all those high school defaults usually waste away for most people unless exercised via interest or work.
A Youtube channel I watch called Good Mythical Morning had an episode where they quizzed each other on basic science questions... they both have very dusty degrees in science fields. They came off as more like default use far lower than merely faded skills proper.
Use it or lose it, even defaults. :(