I don't think the problem is people's outdated knowledge or belief.
In the case of the readers tyying to get their heads around the concept of fields, I would totally agree. What I'm referring to here is the attitude you see in the posts of e.g. john6zx and Buzsaw, and countless other web-based physics-cranks. It is not that they are having trouble with the concepts of fields - their understanding is still 100 years behind the point of even being able to approach fields. And of course, in the post I just made, we haven't even mentioned fields - although classical field theory lies behind the electromagnetism I discussed. As sson as someone starts arguing with - well, can I touch space? Can i touch time? So how can it be physical? - you know you have a struggle. Hence this post above - I'm going right back to basics to destroy this common perception of 'physical'. It's precisely this approach that recently helped Agobot go rather gaga in his nihilism phase
And we'll soon get to the point where Holmes was once accusing me of trying to 'fuck with his mind'
I'd be surprised if you haven't pulled out your hair trying to explain something like the universal expansion of the universe to a lay person before.
Oh, only a few billion times
In a one-on-one, it is much more simple as you can gauge their ability to understand, and present accordingly. The aim is simply for them to go away knowing more than they started (or at least have fewer misconceptions!) and for them to feel pleasure at having learned something complex about the Universe. It is not important for them to be able to pass an exam on it later. The problem is that this always leads to them passing it on to others, and very quickly the message becomes hopelessly corrupted in the inevitable Chinese Whispers. That is why there are so many horrible misconceptions floating around that actually started with professionals. I guess I should only present this stuff on the condition that the audience promises never to repeat it
Anway, presenting at EvC is much more difficult because you have so little feel as to where to pitch the material.