Corona Diary Week 6 Distance Learning

DOUBLE BLIND TESTING + LESSONS FOR THE WEEK + PLAYLIST

DOUBLE BLIND TESTING

So how do you get to truth in spite of confirmation bias, the placebo effect, the desire of scientists to be right (just like everyone else), the post hoc fallacy, the reliance on anecdotal evidence, and just plain human nature which is often too impatient to wait for the truth?

One more ingredient and then we'll have it: make the test DOUBLE blind. Not only can't the patients know which group is getting the placebo and which is getting the real medication, the scientists giving it to them can't know which is which is which either. This prevents them from accidentally "giving it away" and letting test subjects know which group is which.

But guess who else can't know which group is which? The scientists who analyze the data afterward. That way they can't be influenced by their knowledge. If the results are there, they'll be clear in the data.

So the team who does the study is divided into a set-up group who keeps track of who is getting what, the experimental team who administers the treatment, and the analytical team who looks at the data after. Only the first team knows who got what.

Putting it all together, the gold standard for any scientific study involving humans is

Large-scale, controlled, randomized, peer-reviewed, double-blind testing.

Controlled: One group gets the treatment while the other group gets an identical looking placebo.
Large-scale: The groups must be large to make sure that there are no statistical flukes.
Randomized: Test subjects are put into groups randomly so that there is no chance that they affect the results by how they grouped themselves.
Blind: Test subjects don't know which group they're in.
Double Blind: Scientists who administer the treatment and analyze the data don't know which group is which.
Peer-reviewed: Before publication, the study is looked over by experts in the field to make sure everything was done properly.

That's what the FDA requires. That's how we know that things like acetaminophen (the active ingredient in Tylenol) and ibuprofen (the active ingredient in Advil) work. And that's why all the supplements we looked at before have an asterisk: This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. They have not been studied with all of these safeguards in place.

Don't you think that asterisk should be bigger?

CP LESSONS

	CP Lesson 1: Conservation of Momentum Take a look at the video. The worksheet and a link to the simulation are below. Send me a pic of your answers and I'll let you know how you did. Simulation Worksheet Link to the 2-Car Collision Simulation
	CP Lesson 2: Solving Collision Problems Take a look at the video & notes. The worksheet is below. Send me a pic of your answers and I'll let you know how you did. Notes Worksheet
	CP Wow Opportunity In the early days of youtube, this video was making the rounds. Is it real? More importantly, can you find evidence in the video itself that indicates that the video is real or faked? If your explanation is correct, it will make use of the Law of Conservation of Momentum.

HONORS LESSONS

	Lesson 1 and Lesson 2 kind of got mixed together - sorry. Honors Lesson 1: Conservation of Momentum Concepts In the first video, I explain why momentum is conserved in collisions, and show some of the basic ideas. Honors Lesson 2: Total Momentum of a System Despite what I say, the second video is not part 2 of Lesson 1; it's Lesson 2. In this video, I show how to calculate the total momentum of a system. Take a look at the video and try the worksheet below. Send me a pic of your answers and I'll let you know how you did. Conservation of Momentum Questions Total Momentum worksheet

	Honors Lesson 3: Perfectly Inelastic Collisions In this video, I show how to solve for unknowns applying conservation of momentum to perfectly inelastic collisions. Inelastic Collisions worksheet
	Honors DU Problems In the video, I give some hints on the Deeper Understanding problems. Choose any two for DU credit: DU Problems

THE PLAYLIST

Corona Week 6 Playlist

Song	Artist	Year	Comments
Age of Consent	New Order	1983
The Monday After	Babe the Blue Ox	1998	We went to gorgeous New Jersey, The smokestacks, the malls and the waste, Rose up so regal and murky, There was a pearly gray light on your face... Remember talking about the difference between love and falling in love? I think this song captures the feel of the temporary insanity of falling in love.
One Way Or Another	Blondie	1979
Beck's Bolero	Jeff Beck	1967	Beck's take on the classical piece by Ravel.
Dancing with Myself	Billy Idol	1981
Highway Chile	Jimi Hendrix	1967
Heart Shaped Box	Nirvana	1993
The Natural	Nord Express	2009	Another free one from a sampler released by a record company on Amazon.
Rock and Roll Woman	Buffalo Springfield	1967	There is something simultaneously folky and psychedelic about this song.
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic	The Police	1981	It's a big enough umbrella, But it's always me that ends up Getting wet Never a good sign in a relationship.
Falling In and Out of Love with You/Amie	Pure Prairie League	1972	Another one of those situations where you can't play one song without the other.
Heaven	The Noun	2015	Heard this one on my favorite college radio station, WPRB Princeton.
New Jersey	The Red House Painters	1993	I will forever be indebted to WCUR, West Chester University Radio for introducing me to the Red House Painters back when we lived in West Chester. The Red House Painters are one of my favorite bands.
Closing Time	Semisonic	1998	Such a good song.
King for a Day	XTC	1989	Every band sooner or later has its "the music industry sucks" song. I think this is one of the better ones.
Dancing in the Streets	Martha Reeves and the Vandellas	1964
Cold as Ice	Foreigner	1977
The Groove Line	Heatwave	1977	Possibly my favorite funk song.
I Got You	Split Enz	1979	Fans of Crowded House will recognize Neil Finn's voice in Split Enz, his previous band.
Riders on the Storm	The Doors	1971
The Boy with the Thorn in His Side	The Smiths	1986
Bang the Drum All Day	Todd Rundgren	1982	I think you're on to something there, Todd.
Ahead by a Century	The Tragically Hip	1996
Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)	Edison Lighthouse	1970