Learn how a flat Earth would even work; why multitasking is impossible, and what you should do instead; and the four things that nearly every country on Earth is named after. In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes: How Would a Flat Earth Even Work? Multitasking Is Impossible, So Batch Tasks Instead Nearly Every Country on Earth Is Named After 1 of 4 Things Please tell us about yourself and help us improve the show by taking our listener survey! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/curiosity-listener-survey If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! Learn about these topics and more onCuriosity.com, and download our5-star app for Android and iOS. Then, join the conversation onFacebook,Twitter, andInstagram. Plus: Amazon smart speaker users, enable ourAlexa Flash Briefing to learn something new in just a few minutes every day!
Learn how a flat Earth would even work; why multitasking is impossible, and what you should do instead; and the four things that nearly every country on Earth is named after.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes:
Please tell us about yourself and help us improve the show by taking our listener survey! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/curiosity-listener-survey
If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron!
Learn about these topics and more on Curiosity.com, and download our 5-star app for Android and iOS. Then, join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Plus: Amazon smart speaker users, enable our Alexa Flash Briefing to learn something new in just a few minutes every day!
Full episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/multitasking-is-impossible-how-a-flat-earth-would-even-work-and-nearly-every-countrys-name-origin
[MUSIC PLAYING] CODY GAUGH: Hi. We've got three stories from curiosity.com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: And I'm Ashley Hamer. Today, you'll learn how a flat earth would even work, why multitasking is impossible and what you should do instead, and the four things that nearly every country on earth is named after.
CODY GAUGH: Let's satisfy some curiosity. The earth is not flat.
ASHLEY HAMER: That is a fact.
CODY GAUGH: I know we're stepping into the realm of controversy here.
ASHLEY HAMER: It's some weird hipster fad to think that the earth is flat, like Columbus chic.
[LAUGHTER]
CODY GAUGH: Columbus chic?
[LAUGHTER]
ASHLEY HAMER: Just bringing back the Santa Maria.
[LAUGHTER]
CODY GAUGH: Wow. You heard it here first. Well, look, science is supposed to be fun. So we're going to have some fun. What if the earth was flat, just for the sake of argument. How would that work scientifically speaking? Let's find out. First of all, there would be some strange side effects, and you can mostly blame gravity.
First things first. Remember that earth's gravity doesn't pull you down, per se. It pulls you towards its center of mass. So if you're standing at the exact center of this disk, that is the earth, you might feel earthly gravity as normal. But move too far away from the center, and you'll feel a constant pull drawing you back. It would feel like you're standing on a steep hill. By the time you reach the edge of the earth, you would feel like you're practically standing on a vertical wall. Not fun.
So really the earth would feel like a giant ball, which also means it would pull all the water in the world towards the middle. So we would just have one giant ocean, and land animals would have to live in a ring around that ocean.
OK. So what about the solar system? Assuming the sun and earth are round, which they are, our planet is affected by the sun's gravity, which tugs it inward, and forward momentum, which moves us in a perpendicular direction. Those two forces combined leave us in a stable freefall around the sun, which is what the earth does right now. It's falling.
Well, listen. If the earth is flat, that is not orbiting the sun, and the moon isn't orbiting the earth either. Instead, both the sun and the moon are much smaller than the earth, and they move high above the disk, like they were on a carousel centered on the North Pole.
But what's keeping them there is the big question. There is no known force that could levitate two celestial bodies above a high mass object like a flat earth and keep them moving in a circle forever. And we can't launch a satellite into space if we don't know what keeps stuff up in space. And last time I checked, we have a lot of satellites in space. So there you go, just a few fun hypotheticals that you can put out there the next time you need help setting a flat-earther straight.
ASHLEY HAMER: GPS, enough said.
[LAUGHTER]
CODY GAUGH: So I could have just replaced the last two minutes with just these three letters?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yep. Uh.
CODY GAUGH: I'm a podcaster, I guess I'm long-winded.
[CHUCKLES]
ASHLEY HAMER: Research says your brain is not wired for multitasking, but we all love saving time. So today, we'll tell you what to do instead of multitasking to spend your time more efficiently.
CODY GAUGH: I think I had multitasker as a bullet point in my resume for 10 years.
ASHLEY HAMER: Really?
CODY GAUGH: Yeah.
ASHLEY HAMER: Did you remove it after you got a job here?
[LAUGHTER]
CODY GAUGH: Well, believe it or not I haven't updated my resume lately. But next time I do, I may remove it for this reason.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. The thing about multitasking is that you're never actually doing two tasks at the same time. You're just switching from one to the other and back again. That switching eats up more time than you probably realize.
In a 2007 study, people who are interrupted by an email or an instant message during a computer task were 20 to 25 minutes behind by the time they resumed the first task, even though the interruption only took 10 minutes. A third of those people took more than two hours to get back on task. So do the opposite of multitasking and instead, batch your tasks.
The idea is that you split up your tasks by category, things like emails, writing, and idea generation. Then do all of each type in one chunk of time. That chunk can be one four-hour session on Mondays or a 30-minute session every morning and evening, whatever the task calls for. Mark it in your calendar, and treat it like an appointment.
Now this works great for things like responding to emails or scheduling tweets. But it doesn't always work with creative tasks like writing and designing. A 2017 study out of Columbia Business School found that when people regularly switch between tasks, they performed better on a test of creative thinking than people who worked on one task the whole time, and even those who switched when they felt like it. So at the end of the day, a little bit of both might be best. Batch those pesky tasks that eat up your time, and save your switching around for the creative stuff.
CODY GAUGH: Did you like how I was writing emails the whole time you read that?
ASHLEY HAMER: I loved that.
[LAUGHTER]
That was very good, Cody.
CODY GAUGH: I was listening, I promise.
ASHLEY HAMER: On topic.
CODY GAUGH: This podcast is supported by the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business MBA Online program, an internationally accredited online MBA that ranks top 15 in the world and costs 30% less than other top-ranked programs.
ASHLEY HAMER: Utah's MBA Online features cutting edge on-demand curriculum and weekly live web conferencing, led by award-winning faculty thought leaders.
CODY GAUGH: Complete your MBA online, anytime, anywhere, in as little as 24 months.
ASHLEY HAMER: To learn more and receive a University of Utah MBA Online application fee waiver, visit Utahonlinemba.com.
CODY GAUGH: Do you know where your country's name came from? It turns out nearly every country on earth is named after one of four things, although some of the older ones have kind of murky origins for obvious reasons. So let's learn some geography. How many countries can you name, Ashley?
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh, gosh, don't make me do that.
[LAUGHTER]
CODY GAUGH: Did you learn one of those songs or rhymes?
ASHLEY HAMER: No, I wish I had though.
CODY GAUGH: Yeah.
ASHLEY HAMER: That would have been handy. I know the capital of Luxembourg is Luxembourg. That's a fact.
CODY GAUGH: That's help. That's good. That's a start.
ASHLEY HAMER: Let's talk about science. How about that?
[LAUGHTER]
CODY GAUGH: Geography today.
ASHLEY HAMER: All right,
CODY GAUGH: Minerals, Marie.
[LAUGHTER]
So what do these names of countries come from? Well, the first thing is a feature of the land. About a quarter of the world's countries got their names from some description of the land. Iceland, for example, was originally called what translates to "snow land." But its current name comes from Norse settlers who renamed it to deter visitors.
The second name origin is a directional description. So about 25 countries are named for their geographically specific location. Ireland, for example, comes from Gaelic, meaning "land in the West." And Ecuador literally means equator in Spanish.
The next thing a country might be named after is a tribe name. A whopping one third of all countries got their current names from a group of people. Albania got its name from the Albanoi tribe. Bangladesh means "land of the Bengalis." And France's name comes from a coalition of Germanic tribes, the Franks.
And finally, another 25 countries were named after significant historical figures. The Philippines are named after Spain's 16th century King Philip II. Saint Lucia is thought to have been discovered by Christopher Columbus and named after Christian martyr, Saint Lucie or Lucia of Syracuse.
And the good old United States of America got the America part in honor of Italian explorer, Amerigo Vespucci, who is credited with recognizing that the continent explorers thought was Asia, was really what he called the New World. We've got more exciting country name origin stories in our full write-up today on curiosity.com and on the Curiosity app for Android and iOS.
ASHLEY HAMER: In case you didn't hear us talk about it over the weekend, we want to let you know that we've posted a listener survey to get to know you better. And if you take it, you can enter to win a free Curiosity t-shirt.
The survey will really help us improve the show. So we've posted the survey in today's show notes and on our Patreon page and on our podcast page on our website, and on our Discord server, where Cody and I hang out with our patrons all day. Just give us a few minutes, enter to win a t-shirt if you want, and call it a day.
Your feedback will help us make the show better. Tell us your favorite and least favorite stories. Or just stroke our egos, and tell us how much you love us. We won't be mad. One more time, find the link in today's show notes or at patreon.com/curiosity.com, all spelled out. We really appreciate it.
CODY GAUGH: You could even fill it out while you're multitasking.
ASHLEY HAMER: No, you can't.
[LAUGHTER]
CODY GAUGH: Read about today's stories and more on curiosity.com.
ASHLEY HAMER: Join us again tomorrow for the Curiosity Daily, and learn something new in just a few minutes. I'm Ashley Hamer.
CODY GAUGH: And I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: Stay curious.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
SPEAKER: On the Westwood One Podcast Network.[MUSIC PLAYING] CODY GAUGH: Hi. We've got three stories from curiosity.com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: And I'm Ashley Hamer. Today, you'll learn how a flat earth would even work, why multitasking is impossible and what you should do instead, and the four things that nearly every country on earth is named after.
CODY GAUGH: Let's satisfy some curiosity. The earth is not flat.
ASHLEY HAMER: That is a fact.
CODY GAUGH: I know we're stepping into the realm of controversy here.
ASHLEY HAMER: It's some weird hipster fad to think that the earth is flat, like Columbus chic.
[LAUGHTER]
CODY GAUGH: Columbus chic?
[LAUGHTER]
ASHLEY HAMER: Just bringing back the Santa Maria.
[LAUGHTER]
CODY GAUGH: Wow. You heard it here first. Well, look, science is supposed to be fun. So we're going to have some fun. What if the earth was flat, just for the sake of argument. How would that work scientifically speaking? Let's find out. First of all, there would be some strange side effects, and you can mostly blame gravity.
First things first. Remember that earth's gravity doesn't pull you down, per se. It pulls you towards its center of mass. So if you're standing at the exact center of this disk, that is the earth, you might feel earthly gravity as normal. But move too far away from the center, and you'll feel a constant pull drawing you back. It would feel like you're standing on a steep hill. By the time you reach the edge of the earth, you would feel like you're practically standing on a vertical wall. Not fun.
So really the earth would feel like a giant ball, which also means it would pull all the water in the world towards the middle. So we would just have one giant ocean, and land animals would have to live in a ring around that ocean.
OK. So what about the solar system? Assuming the sun and earth are round, which they are, our planet is affected by the sun's gravity, which tugs it inward, and forward momentum, which moves us in a perpendicular direction. Those two forces combined leave us in a stable freefall around the sun, which is what the earth does right now. It's falling.
Well, listen. If the earth is flat, that is not orbiting the sun, and the moon isn't orbiting the earth either. Instead, both the sun and the moon are much smaller than the earth, and they move high above the disk, like they were on a carousel centered on the North Pole.
But what's keeping them there is the big question. There is no known force that could levitate two celestial bodies above a high mass object like a flat earth and keep them moving in a circle forever. And we can't launch a satellite into space if we don't know what keeps stuff up in space. And last time I checked, we have a lot of satellites in space. So there you go, just a few fun hypotheticals that you can put out there the next time you need help setting a flat-earther straight.
ASHLEY HAMER: GPS, enough said.
[LAUGHTER]
CODY GAUGH: So I could have just replaced the last two minutes with just these three letters?
ASHLEY HAMER: Yep. Uh.
CODY GAUGH: I'm a podcaster, I guess I'm long-winded.
[CHUCKLES]
ASHLEY HAMER: Research says your brain is not wired for multitasking, but we all love saving time. So today, we'll tell you what to do instead of multitasking to spend your time more efficiently.
CODY GAUGH: I think I had multitasker as a bullet point in my resume for 10 years.
ASHLEY HAMER: Really?
CODY GAUGH: Yeah.
ASHLEY HAMER: Did you remove it after you got a job here?
[LAUGHTER]
CODY GAUGH: Well, believe it or not I haven't updated my resume lately. But next time I do, I may remove it for this reason.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. The thing about multitasking is that you're never actually doing two tasks at the same time. You're just switching from one to the other and back again. That switching eats up more time than you probably realize.
In a 2007 study, people who are interrupted by an email or an instant message during a computer task were 20 to 25 minutes behind by the time they resumed the first task, even though the interruption only took 10 minutes. A third of those people took more than two hours to get back on task. So do the opposite of multitasking and instead, batch your tasks.
The idea is that you split up your tasks by category, things like emails, writing, and idea generation. Then do all of each type in one chunk of time. That chunk can be one four-hour session on Mondays or a 30-minute session every morning and evening, whatever the task calls for. Mark it in your calendar, and treat it like an appointment.
Now this works great for things like responding to emails or scheduling tweets. But it doesn't always work with creative tasks like writing and designing. A 2017 study out of Columbia Business School found that when people regularly switch between tasks, they performed better on a test of creative thinking than people who worked on one task the whole time, and even those who switched when they felt like it. So at the end of the day, a little bit of both might be best. Batch those pesky tasks that eat up your time, and save your switching around for the creative stuff.
CODY GAUGH: Did you like how I was writing emails the whole time you read that?
ASHLEY HAMER: I loved that.
[LAUGHTER]
That was very good, Cody.
CODY GAUGH: I was listening, I promise.
ASHLEY HAMER: On topic.
CODY GAUGH: This podcast is supported by the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business MBA Online program, an internationally accredited online MBA that ranks top 15 in the world and costs 30% less than other top-ranked programs.
ASHLEY HAMER: Utah's MBA Online features cutting edge on-demand curriculum and weekly live web conferencing, led by award-winning faculty thought leaders.
CODY GAUGH: Complete your MBA online, anytime, anywhere, in as little as 24 months.
ASHLEY HAMER: To learn more and receive a University of Utah MBA Online application fee waiver, visit Utahonlinemba.com.
CODY GAUGH: Do you know where your country's name came from? It turns out nearly every country on earth is named after one of four things, although some of the older ones have kind of murky origins for obvious reasons. So let's learn some geography. How many countries can you name, Ashley?
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh, gosh, don't make me do that.
[LAUGHTER]
CODY GAUGH: Did you learn one of those songs or rhymes?
ASHLEY HAMER: No, I wish I had though.
CODY GAUGH: Yeah.
ASHLEY HAMER: That would have been handy. I know the capital of Luxembourg is Luxembourg. That's a fact.
CODY GAUGH: That's help. That's good. That's a start.
ASHLEY HAMER: Let's talk about science. How about that?
[LAUGHTER]
CODY GAUGH: Geography today.
ASHLEY HAMER: All right,
CODY GAUGH: Minerals, Marie.
[LAUGHTER]
So what do these names of countries come from? Well, the first thing is a feature of the land. About a quarter of the world's countries got their names from some description of the land. Iceland, for example, was originally called what translates to "snow land." But its current name comes from Norse settlers who renamed it to deter visitors.
The second name origin is a directional description. So about 25 countries are named for their geographically specific location. Ireland, for example, comes from Gaelic, meaning "land in the West." And Ecuador literally means equator in Spanish.
The next thing a country might be named after is a tribe name. A whopping one third of all countries got their current names from a group of people. Albania got its name from the Albanoi tribe. Bangladesh means "land of the Bengalis." And France's name comes from a coalition of Germanic tribes, the Franks.
And finally, another 25 countries were named after significant historical figures. The Philippines are named after Spain's 16th century King Philip II. Saint Lucia is thought to have been discovered by Christopher Columbus and named after Christian martyr, Saint Lucie or Lucia of Syracuse.
And the good old United States of America got the America part in honor of Italian explorer, Amerigo Vespucci, who is credited with recognizing that the continent explorers thought was Asia, was really what he called the New World. We've got more exciting country name origin stories in our full write-up today on curiosity.com and on the Curiosity app for Android and iOS.
ASHLEY HAMER: In case you didn't hear us talk about it over the weekend, we want to let you know that we've posted a listener survey to get to know you better. And if you take it, you can enter to win a free Curiosity t-shirt.
The survey will really help us improve the show. So we've posted the survey in today's show notes and on our Patreon page and on our podcast page on our website, and on our Discord server, where Cody and I hang out with our patrons all day. Just give us a few minutes, enter to win a t-shirt if you want, and call it a day.
Your feedback will help us make the show better. Tell us your favorite and least favorite stories. Or just stroke our egos, and tell us how much you love us. We won't be mad. One more time, find the link in today's show notes or at patreon.com/curiosity.com, all spelled out. We really appreciate it.
CODY GAUGH: You could even fill it out while you're multitasking.
ASHLEY HAMER: No, you can't.
[LAUGHTER]
CODY GAUGH: Read about today's stories and more on curiosity.com.
ASHLEY HAMER: Join us again tomorrow for the Curiosity Daily, and learn something new in just a few minutes. I'm Ashley Hamer.
CODY GAUGH: And I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: Stay curious.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
SPEAKER: On the Westwood One Podcast Network.