Science and Technology Versus Mathematics
Before I get started I think everyone should understand that I love my wife very much. She is very intelligent, hard working, and must use math and her critical thinking skills on a daily basis at her job. For this she gets paid pretty handsomely.
However she is terrible with scientific and technological concepts. It's not that she can't understand them. She just doesn't care. She is not interested, and hasn't ever been.
This has caused no small amount of humor for me and minor problems for her since I've known her.
The current conundrum involves coffee and at least two thermoses. On her birthday, Victoria wanted to use some coupons and points at both Duncan Donuts and Starbucks to get some coffee cheap. It appears to be about a gallon, split up between several containers, which she then put in the freezer.
Three days ago she took out one of the thermoses to let it thaw and get some of the coffee out. I came downstairs in the morning to find the open thermos and the solid block of coffee inside. Around 10:30, she complained loudly that the coffee was not thawing. I asked her why she put it in a thermos. She said, "Well I realize now that was a mistake. But how do I get it out?" I said, "Well it's not going to be easy. Thermoses are designed to keep whatever's in it hot or cold for a long period of time."
I came back later and found the thermos out on the deck on a table in direct sunlight, with the lid on it. The lid was on because she wanted to keep bugs and birds out of it. Fair enough. After lunch, and still unhappy with the apparent lack of progress, she decided to put it in a pot of water on the stove on low for several hours.
By dinner and after much stabbing with a dinner knife, there was some liquid starting to show, but it was still mostly coffee ice. The next day she just decided to leave it out in the kitchen with the lid off. At the end of the day there was significantly more liquid coffee, but as of today there are about two good sized cubes of coffee ice still in it.
Now, all of us who understand even the basics of thermodynamics know immediately that it was a terrible idea to freeze the coffee in the thermos. By design they are terrible conductors and fantastic insulators. Again, it's not that my wife is dumb. It's that she was never interested in science or technology or finding out how things work, unless those things relate directly to her chosen field of life, which is accounting and banking, and perhaps the children's health.
As a result she completely lacks the ability to think through some things. "That's what I have you for," she's said, on more than one occasion. Try as I might, I can't convince her to learn more, UNTIL it directly affects her in some way, such as a solid block of coffee inside a thermos that she wants to drink three days ago.
The second thermos is still in the freezer. By the way, we thought this Girl Scouts thermos that my daughter got for selling cookies or something was kind of cheap and not very good.
But clearly that was not a correct assumption.
Science and Technology Versus Mathematics
Before I get started I think everyone should understand that I love my wife very much. She is very intelligent, hard working, and must use math and her critical thinking skills on a daily basis at her job. For this she gets paid pretty handsomely.
However she is terrible with scientific and technological concepts. It's not that she can't understand them. She just doesn't care. She is not interested, and hasn't ever been.
This has caused no small amount of humor for me and minor problems for her since I've known her.
The current conundrum involves coffee and at least two thermoses. On her birthday, Victoria wanted to use some coupons and points at both Duncan Donuts and Starbucks to get some coffee cheap. It appears to be about a gallon, split up between several containers, which she then put in the freezer.
Three days ago she took out one of the thermoses to let it thaw and get some of the coffee out. I came downstairs in the morning to find the open thermos and the solid block of coffee inside. Around 10:30, she complained loudly that the coffee was not thawing. I asked her why she put it in a thermos. She said, "Well I realize now that was a mistake. But how do I get it out?" I said, "Well it's not going to be easy. Thermoses are designed to keep whatever's in it hot or cold for a long period of time."
I came back later and found the thermos out on the deck on a table in direct sunlight, with the lid on it. The lid was on because she wanted to keep bugs and birds out of it. Fair enough. After lunch, and still unhappy with the apparent lack of progress, she decided to put it in a pot of water on the stove on low for several hours.
By dinner and after much stabbing with a dinner knife, there was some liquid starting to show, but it was still mostly coffee ice. The next day she just decided to leave it out in the kitchen with the lid off. At the end of the day there was significantly more liquid coffee, but as of today there are about two good sized cubes of coffee ice still in it.
Now, all of us who understand even the basics of thermodynamics know immediately that it was a terrible idea to freeze the coffee in the thermos. By design they are terrible conductors and fantastic insulators. Again, it's not that my wife is dumb. It's that she was never interested in science or technology or finding out how things work, unless those things relate directly to her chosen field of life, which is accounting and banking, and perhaps the children's health.
As a result she completely lacks the ability to think through some things. "That's what I have you for," she's said, on more than one occasion. Try as I might, I can't convince her to learn more, UNTIL it directly affects her in some way, such as a solid block of coffee inside a thermos that she wants to drink three days ago.
The second thermos is still in the freezer. By the way, we thought this Girl Scouts thermos that my daughter got for selling cookies or something was kind of cheap and not very good.
But clearly that was not a correct assumption.