Self Aware: Flipped Out Under Pressure

Photo by Jerome Hosken (thanks, Dad!)

When I was young, I presented the following theory in the textbook Conceptual Physics, by Paul Hewitt.

I kind of flip out just knowing this pool wouldn't be here unless it was being squashed into a liquid state by the weight of the air above it. Take away the atmospheric pressure and zap! The pool goes into just so much more water vapor. No atmosphere, no pools. That's why there are no pools, lakes, or oceans on the moon!

Later on, the theory was disproven, and I was quietly removed from the book. Still, I have no regrets: if we restrain our theories for fear of their being disproven, then we will stagnate like fetid pools.

Or something like that.

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