I think I've been handling this the best way I can, but it's really annoying, and I'm curious if anyone else has encountered this at work. In general, I find that some electricians consider themselves experts on "electricity", rather than "electrical installations".
Here's the background... Right out of high school, I earned an honors bachelors degree in physics, and was halfway through a masters degree in the same field before I discovered that I'd really rather be working with my hands than in a lab or in front of a computer all day, so I became an electrician.
One nuisance I've encountered in the field is coworkers who fancy themselves electricity experts, and confidently make statements about electricity that are completely wrong, and I have to bite my lip to stop myself from correcting them unless its important for the job that I do. And I swear to god, I hear at least two or three of these statements a week.
Some of my favourite examples:
- A foreman tried to tell me that pure water is conductive (Water, as long as it's pure, is actually a much, much better insulator than the insulation that most of our wires are covered in)
- Another tried to tell me that there's actually a use to putting a ground clamp on a PVC pipe system, something about bleeding off accumulated charge (Any accumulated charge on PVC will remain exactly where it started unless physically moved toward the ground clamp, since electrons don't move in insulators. You're effectively grounding a 1 inch section of pipe)
- Same guy tried to tell me that there's no change in a cable's susceptibility to interference when you switch from twisted-pair to untwisted. (Wrong, but the explanation is too long to type here)
- Someone else tried to tell me that electrons in a wire travel near the speed of light (they actually travel slower than walking speed)
I guess it's just annoying for me to have a field of expertise, yet need to completely shut up about it because I don't want to make a superior feel stupid, even though they're regularly spouting completely incorrect statements about science with the confidence of Donald Trump.
Here's the background... Right out of high school, I earned an honors bachelors degree in physics, and was halfway through a masters degree in the same field before I discovered that I'd really rather be working with my hands than in a lab or in front of a computer all day, so I became an electrician.
One nuisance I've encountered in the field is coworkers who fancy themselves electricity experts, and confidently make statements about electricity that are completely wrong, and I have to bite my lip to stop myself from correcting them unless its important for the job that I do. And I swear to god, I hear at least two or three of these statements a week.
Some of my favourite examples:
- A foreman tried to tell me that pure water is conductive (Water, as long as it's pure, is actually a much, much better insulator than the insulation that most of our wires are covered in)
- Another tried to tell me that there's actually a use to putting a ground clamp on a PVC pipe system, something about bleeding off accumulated charge (Any accumulated charge on PVC will remain exactly where it started unless physically moved toward the ground clamp, since electrons don't move in insulators. You're effectively grounding a 1 inch section of pipe)
- Same guy tried to tell me that there's no change in a cable's susceptibility to interference when you switch from twisted-pair to untwisted. (Wrong, but the explanation is too long to type here)
- Someone else tried to tell me that electrons in a wire travel near the speed of light (they actually travel slower than walking speed)
I guess it's just annoying for me to have a field of expertise, yet need to completely shut up about it because I don't want to make a superior feel stupid, even though they're regularly spouting completely incorrect statements about science with the confidence of Donald Trump.