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If a person from 1700 asked you your job, would they understand your answer, and if not, how would you explain it to them? (lemm.ee)

submitted 8 months ago by JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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[–] evlogii@lemm.ee 2 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I spent about 30 seconds staring at this question, followed by 3 minutes pondering how to explain the phenomenon of electricity to someone unfamiliar with it, but nothing came to mind. Then, I went online and found that, while we have some understanding of how to detect and manipulate electricity, fundamentally, it's just how our universe works and we don't know exactly what it is.

[–] Silentiea@lemm.ee 1 points 8 months ago

It's just little tiny things wiggling around in wires. They're always there, and if you wiggle them just right you can make rocks think!

[–] TheGalacticVoid@lemm.ee 1 points 8 months ago

I was moreso pointing to the fact that it wasn't discovered until after 1700, not the fact that it could have been explained to someone in 1700. It's still wild how we don't know why it happens.