Lie-to-children - Definition and Overview

A lie-to-children is an expression that describes a form of simplification of material. The universe, so far as we can observe, is extremely complicated. The first time one explains something to a person (especially a child), one might give an explanation that is simple, concise, or simply "wrong" — but in a way that attempts to make the truth more understandable. (Sometimes, an explanation can accompany it, such as "This isn't technically true, but it's easier to understand.")

Later on, one can admit that the first explanation was a lie, and replace it with the truth, or a more sophisticated lie-to-children, which is nearer to the truth. You can continue this process all through a persons' education.

A lie-to-children in physics

(From h2g2 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A685055))

1. Weight is constant.
   • Children in primary school learn that the weight of something doesn't change if you just change its shape.
2. Weight is not a constant. What's actually constant is mass.
   • In secondary school, teenagers often learn that on the moon or on Mars, an objects' weight will be different, because gravity in those places is different, but the mass will stay the same.
3. Mass is not a constant, but depends on the velocity of the object, relative to the speed of light, which is a constant.
   • Later on, college students find out that relativity says that the mass of an object can vary depending on velocity.
4. The speed of light is not, in fact, a constant, but may have been significantly larger than its current value during the early life of the universe or under certain conditions.
   • People reach this level of understanding when they are educated and begin to think outside the bounds of thier educational orthodoxy. Many of those considered genuises or great thinkers reach a level of comprehension that exceeds the previously established "apex of truth", sometimes even "coming around" and re-affirming the truth of an earlier assertion in the chain.

The term appeared in the book The Science of Discworld, co-authored and party based on ideas created by Terry Pratchett, and in in Collapse in Chaos and Figments of Reality, both by the other two co-authors of The Science of Discworld, Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen.

External links

• The Science of Discworld (http://www.funny.co.uk/comedy/prod_152-0091886570-The-Science-of-Discworld.html)
• h2g2 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A685055#back3)

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