Science = Men in white coats

Late last week, Albert Einstein was brought up in the course of class.  I guess it's not too surprising.  After all, he's arguably the most well known intelligent person of the modern age.  At least to people who have no connection whatsoever to intellectual pursuits, or thinking in general.  Unfortunately, he was brought up because a student tried to say he was a famous mathematician.

I corrected them, saying that he was not a mathematician, but a physicist.  The student responded by saying, "Aren't those the same thing?"

I should have let it go.  I should have told myself that surely they were making a simple mistake.  After all, especially historically, physics and mathematics have been very closely intertwined, and some of the best physicists have done great work in mathematics and vice versa.

But no, I wanted to try to educate this poor creature and said, "Those are not the same thing.  That would be like saying a biologist and a geologist were the same, even though one works with rocks, and the other with living things."

So this student.  This student responded, "Well, they do the same job, so they're the same thing."

I didn't have the will to keep the conversation going anymore.  When someone who is legally an adult, who has somehow graduated high school, seems to have as strong of an understanding of what "science" is about as a seven year old child, where do you even begin to try to unravel their ignorance?  I can only guess that this person assumes that any person in a white lab coat and glasses is perfectly interchangeable with any other, and there is no real difference between their jobs.

Wait, I take that back.  The average seven year old child would probably know the difference between biology and geology.  And if they didn't, they would probably be receptive and open to learning how they're different, and may be fascinated to do so.  I should not insult children by comparing them to this waste of brain matter.