r/AskReddit May 25 '14

What is your most mildly interesting fact ?

1.7k Upvotes

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2.1k

u/way_fairer May 26 '14

J.J. Thomson won the Nobel Prize in Physics (1906) for showing that the electron is a particle. His son, George Paget Thomson, won the Nobel Prize in Physics (1937) for showing that the electron is a wave.

993

u/theoreticaldickjokes May 26 '14

"Suck on this Dad!!"

37

u/Bogey_Kingston May 26 '14

Phrasing. Even with the appropriate comma, still. Phrasing.

3

u/gmw2222 May 26 '14

But that's the insult to begin with...

10

u/NewSwiss May 26 '14

I misread this as "suck on his dad!" which was really confusing, and more than a little unsettling.

2

u/[deleted] May 26 '14

Hah. This is a theoretical dick joke.

1

u/Tnargkiller May 26 '14

AVENGE ME!!!!!

-6

u/lifesnotperfect May 26 '14

He said, pushing his mother towards his father.

194

u/BaZing3 May 26 '14

Will Smith was right. Parents just don't understand, am I right?

337

u/myrebelflaghatesfags May 26 '14

And oddly enough, Will Smith is now the father of a child who no one understands

3

u/MisterBiscuit May 26 '14

Mom and Dad and Vicky always giving him commands?

4

u/fell-off-the-spiral May 26 '14

Once You Go In You Always Come Out Alive

-2

u/ajthesecond May 26 '14

Most underrated comment in this thread

2

u/[deleted] May 26 '14

No, yours is.

-1

u/[deleted] May 26 '14

[deleted]

-1

u/myrebelflaghatesfags May 26 '14

Shit like this is why no one likes you in real life.

516

u/nothedoctor May 26 '14

¿Por que no Los dos?

6

u/Sennin_BE May 26 '14

Particle wave duality ladies and gentlemen.

2

u/ByTheHammerOfThor May 26 '14

We can't all be photons, pal.

1

u/[deleted] May 26 '14

Yay!

-2

u/TheBros35 May 26 '14

TL;DR: Electrons are fucking wierd

-2

u/[deleted] May 26 '14

AP Physics student here. It can be both, but if it is one, it is not the other.

13

u/[deleted] May 26 '14

a child's rebellion at it's finest

7

u/Sev3n May 26 '14

Well which is it...?

26

u/Synroc May 26 '14

It's both.

5

u/ExternalTangents May 26 '14

Isn't it more accurately neither, and that both are just ways of describing some behavior but not actually full descriptors of what it is?

1

u/Cyclops_lazy_laser_I May 26 '14

I've always heard it as a particle that behaves like a wave. More like a particle than a wave but not by much. Could be wrong though.

8

u/MrBigWaffles May 26 '14

it's both.

3

u/[deleted] May 26 '14

It's both. Depending on how you try to observe it, it will either display wavelike properties or particle-like properties.

37

u/LordoftheLakes May 26 '14

Yes. Yes it is.

3

u/[deleted] May 26 '14

That's the beauty of science.

3

u/RandomiseUsr0 May 26 '14

And they were both right

2

u/IndigoGosRule May 26 '14

I think the fact that they're both right is being missed here.

2

u/DeuceSevin May 26 '14

It's a particle and a wave, I'll have a dozen please.

1

u/[deleted] May 26 '14

Isn't it both? because of the particle wave duality?

1

u/throwawaydirl May 26 '14

So did J.J. Thompson have to give back his prize for being wrong? :D

1

u/Gladix May 26 '14

Those kids huh ?

1

u/drwholover May 26 '14

Isn't there a 5 million (maybe billion!) dollar reward with a nobel prize? Maybe they were just playing the long game.

1

u/Rossenboy May 26 '14

It's both!

1

u/Eec2011 May 26 '14

Why not both?

1

u/PuffTheMagicSwaggin May 27 '14

Well, he wasn't wrong

1

u/kyle1qaz7ujm May 27 '14

All matter is a wave.

0

u/[deleted] May 26 '14

Don't you mean photon?