Learn why the Michelson-Morley Experiment is the most famous failed experiment in history; how to tell if you’re a covert narcissist; and the Monty Hall Problem, which is a probability puzzle that might break your brain. 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: The Michelson-Morley Experiment Is the Most Famous Failed Experiment in History — https://curiosity.im/2Sm5tAX Take This Quiz to Find Out If You're a Covert Narcissist — https://curiosity.im/2ShRSdJ The Monty Hall Problem Is the Probability Puzzle That Enraged 10,000 Readers — https://curiosity.im/2SkjZJc 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! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom 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!
Learn why the Michelson-Morley Experiment is the most famous failed experiment in history; how to tell if you’re a covert narcissist; and the Monty Hall Problem, which is a probability puzzle that might break your brain.
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:
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! https://www.patreon.com/curiositydotcom
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/see-if-youre-a-covert-narcissist-michelson-morley-experiment-and-the-monty-hall-problem
[MUSIC PLAYING] CODY GOUGH: 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 about the most famous failed experiment in history, how to tell if you're a covert narcissist, and the Monty Hall problem, which might break your brain.
CODY GOUGH: Let's satisfy some curiosity on the brain-breaking Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY HAMER: Our first story today is about the Michelson-Morley experiment which changed the way we think about physics. And the best part is that the experiment was actually a failure.
CODY GOUGH: Most famous failed experiment in history? You decide.
ASHLEY HAMER: Around the start of the 19th century, physicists had the idea that there was a substance pervading the universe. According to them, waves like sound and light needed a medium to travel through. So they came up with the idea of ether. You've maybe seen it spelled A-E-T-H-E-R. And it had some kind of strange properties.
Supposedly, you could find ether everywhere. But it didn't actually interact with physical matter at all. Oh, and ether had a, quote unquote, "wind," or ether flow. You know how you feel when you stick your hand out of a car window even if there's no breeze that day? Well, that's kind of how ether flow worked around the planet's surface.
Well, in 1887, some physicists started to think that ether only carried light waves. And two physicists designed an experiment to prove it, Albert Michelson and Edward Morley. They had the idea that the flow of ether could affect how fast light moved through it.
Here's the basic idea. Think about two swimmers that race down a river for 100 meters. Well, if they swim at the exact same speed, only one is swimming upstream and the other is swimming downstream, then the one swimming downstream will get to the finish faster.
Michelson and Morley figured the same should be true of light traveling through the ether. So they built a device called an interferometer. That's basically a one-way mirror to split a beam of light. Half of it gets reflected at a 90-degree angle down one tunnel, and the other half passes down through another tunnel. Then both beams of light are reflected again against mirrors at the end of each tunnel, and they're measured by a detector in the end.
If one reaches the detector before the other, then you know that they were traveling at different speeds. Well, you probably know where this is going. The two beams of light got where they were going at the exact same time every time. It turns out, there is no ether. And light might be a wave, but it's also a particle that always travels at the same speed in a vacuum.
These conclusions laid the groundwork for some of Einstein's theories of general and special relativity, which were some of the most influential scientific ideas of the past century. It just goes to show that science makes as much progress through its missteps as it does through its successes.
CODY GOUGH: Research shows you can be a narcissist even if you don't act like one. Remember, just because you're not always talking about yourself, doesn't mean you're not always thinking of yourself. Today I'll tell you how to figure out if you are a covert narcissist. Is this you, Ashley?
ASHLEY HAMER: It really scares me, and I was afraid it was me. But I took the quiz, and it says I'm not. So that's good.
CODY GOUGH: I also took the quiz, and you'll never believe what my results were.
ASHLEY HAMER: [CHUCKLES]
CODY GOUGH: You might. It's actually surprisingly low.
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh, all right. Well.
CODY GOUGH: I was actually kind of pleasantly surprised.
ASHLEY HAMER: I believe that. [CHUCKLES]
CODY GOUGH: Well, we're going to learn a little bit about narcissists. And again, we've got a resource if you want to test your narcissism level. Whether you're an overt or a covert one, narcissists are distinguished by these three key personality traits-- conceitedness, self-indulgence, and disregard of others' feelings and well-being. The difference is in how those traits express themselves.
While an overt narcissist might openly brag about their brains, looks, or talent, or radio voice, a covert narcissist keeps those beliefs to themselves. Clearly not me. But both of those expressions reflect a narcissist's insecurity. In fact, the covert narcissist protects their inflated sense of self-worth by keeping it to themselves. That doesn't mean it doesn't leak out into the world in other ways though.
According to an article from Psychology Today, there are a few things that might make a covert narcissist stand out in your social circle. A few giveaways include quiet smugness, self-absorption, and a lack of empathy. But a couple of others include extreme sensitivity and a tendency to see themselves as misunderstood and, quote unquote, "special." While more extroverted narcissists can be very charming, covert narcissists may have a harder time developing close relationships and may come off as cold and impersonal.
Now look, everyone can share some of these traits to a degree, so don't panic. But if you're worried you might be a narcissist, then consider taking the covert narcissist test, also known as the hypersensitive narcissism scale. It was designed by psychologist Jonathan Cheek in 1997, and you can find it in our full write-up on curiosity.com and on our free Curiosity app for Android and iOS. Just rate how much you agree with 10 statements, add up your score, and see how self-centered you really are. I scored less than the average score for a college student. I'm growing up so fast.
ASHLEY HAMER: Oh.
CODY GOUGH: Before we get to our last story, I want to give a special shout-out to some of our Patreons for supporting our show. Thank you Ryan Day, Rebecca Broberg, Maximilian [INAUDIBLE], Katrina Constantine, and Deborah Posey for contributing to our Patreon page. You are helping us satisfy the curiosity of a lot of people by chipping in to support the show.
ASHLEY HAMER: If you're listening and you want to support Curiosity Daily, then visit patreon.com/curiosity.com, all spelled out. Even a couple bucks a month makes a big difference. That's less than a broken interferometer. And our Patreons get lots of exclusive stuff, like a really exciting full-length Curiosity podcast episode we're releasing in the next few days.
CODY GOUGH: One more time, that's patreon.com/curiosity.com.
ASHLEY HAMER: The Monty Hall problem is a probability puzzle that might make you mad. Get ready for a statistics lesson.
CODY GOUGH: I'm getting ready for angry emails.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah.
CODY GOUGH: I was hesitant to even run this story on the podcast, but people love reading about it.
ASHLEY HAMER: The thing is that when this was originally published, it was answered by one of the smartest women in mathematics in the entire world, and she got like 10,000 letters of hate mail about her answer.
CODY GOUGH: Yeah, it's a frustrating problem. But I promise you that what we're reporting is right.
ASHLEY HAMER: Absolutely. You can check other sources. It is true. So Monty Hall was the host of a game show called Let's Make a Deal from 1963 to 1986. And here is how the Monty Hall problem goes.
Monty Hall presents you with three doors. One, he says, has a car behind it, which you'll win if you pick it. The other two doors are hiding live goats, which mean you win nothing.
Monty Hall asks you to pick a door. Let's say, you go with door number 1. He doesn't open that door yet though. Instead, he opens door number 3 to reveal a goat. So you know that between door number 1, which you picked, and door number 2, which you didn't, one has a car and the other one has a goat.
Now you get the chance to either stick with your choice of door or switch to door number 2. Should you switch? The seemingly obvious answer is that it doesn't matter. You've got a 50/50 shot at winning the car either way.
The correct answer though is that you should absolutely switch. The key to this puzzle is to realize that it's not truly random. Monty Hall knows which door contains the car, and he's not going to open it until the end of the game.
Think of it this way. Before you choose a door, there's a one out of three chance that any one of them contains the car. But once you choose door number 1 and Monty Hall opens door number 3 to reveal that it doesn't contain the car, door number 2's chances shoot up to 2/3.
Remember, there's probably something special about door number 2 that led him not to open it. Here's a different way to break it down. So three things could happen if you choose door number 1. If the car is in door number 1 and you switched to door number 2, then you lose. If the car is in door number 2 and you switched to door number 2, then you win.
CODY GOUGH: So there's two options. You win one, and you lose one.
ASHLEY HAMER: Right. Now here's the third option. Let's say the car is in door number 3, and Monty Hall opens door number 2 to reveal a goat. Now in this case, if you switched to door number 3, then you win. So overall, switching wins you the car two out of three times.
CODY GOUGH: It's weird. You're right. The mathematician's right.
ASHLEY HAMER: But it still doesn't make intuitive sense.
CODY GOUGH: No.
ASHLEY HAMER: There's a great number of file video that explains all of this, and you can see that in the article, which we will link to in the show notes.
CODY GOUGH: Read about today's stories and more on curiosity.com.
ASHLEY HAMER: Join us again tomorrow, the award-winning Curiosity Daily, and learn something new in just a few minutes. I'm Ashley Hamer.
CODY GOUGH: And I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: Stay curious.
NARRATOR: On the Westwood One Podcast Network.
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