167Kviews
40 Of The Most Ridiculous ‘Scientific’ Diagrams You’ll See That Beg The Question ‘What Were They Thinking?’
I have no doubt that every one of us has seen something odd in our textbooks—a name, an illustration or a graph that looks just a bit too odd or completely bizarre for it to be in a textbook.
Of course, to us as kids that was comedy gold and we’d go around showing everyone this unique and hilarious discovery. But now… well, yeah, it’s still super funny, but now it also begs the question “what were they thinking!?”
Believe it or not, there’s an entire Facebook group dedicated to sharing with the world the most ridiculous, yet scientifically accurate and true, illustrations and diagrams that people find hard to believe that they managed to make it into a textbook.
Bored Panda has collected some of the best examples for you to enjoy below. And while you’re down there, why not vote and comment on the ones you’ve liked the most!
This post may include affiliate links.
I'm a voice instructor and this was TOTALLY fascinating to me.
Load More Replies...
The diagram points to the part of the mouth you use to create that sound. Bilabial sounds are the first we produce as babies; mama, papa, etc.
Load More Replies...
There is a book (also audiobook) called the actors book of dialects. It uses the same premise to explain how to correctly pronounce different dialects. The actor who reads the book is epic and highly skilled!
That book is fantastic! It was instrumental in my learning dialects and accents years ago.
Load More Replies...
This is not ridiculous! It's very useful for speech therapists and English language learners.
Phonology, phenology, whatever... there is YES, Asia, Zebra. Three good bands, at least.
How is the h in happy glottal? Unless it's a diagram for the Georgie accent.
Try to say happy with your tongue blocking the throat or pressed to the roof of your mouth. The sound of the word "happy" comes from the throat
Load More Replies... 
Okay, I'll bite!! Where is the NO section??? What about the WOMAN or MUM section??? This is very biased! How about some balance.
The Korean alphabet was designed to represent this information. E.g., the character ㄱ (giyeok), which sounds like a "g" at the start of a syllable or a soft "k" at the end of a syllable (demonstrated by the name) represents the tongue pushed back against the roof of the mouth, while the character ㄴ (nieun), which sounds like "n", represents the tip of the tongue touching the roof of the mouth. (While individual characters exist and form the basis of the alphabet, single letters are considered to be blocks or syllables, e.g. 밮 "bap", which means "rice" (cooked).) The rules of the language are pretty interesting, and reflect the culture and philosophy of Korea.
Oh, man... I remember having it on my phone as a cheat sheet during class... XD
I could have used this pic to remember it better for yesterday's final exams from phonetics :D
the first word any baby says is "ma" (or variations of it) because it is made with the closed lips opening. "Spy" is way down the back of the bus in time
It shows the part of your mouth and throat that are used/stimulated when those particular words are said. From a "p" sound on the lips, to the "y" or "g" sound in the back of the throat
Load More Replies...
They don't seem to have a section on how I make my "demon" voice. I have used it when I have had laryngitis and have not been able to make any other type of sound. Customers got a lot of exercise that day. "Run away from the possessed woman!"
Scared me when I didn't know what phonology is. Did I say that right?
The Facebook group in question is called Science diagrams that look like s**tposts and is dedicated to sharing proper science illustrations, figures, and graphs from textbooks and other publications whose editors obviously never bothered to check the end product before printing, thus ending in results that are reminiscent of s**tposting—internet slang for creating content of no value.
The group was created by an internaut named Luke who found these diagrams really funny, while admitting he has no idea why—it just was, and we all understand it, though can’t entirely explain it.
Oh dear.... ummm... seems like someone has a toddler and had a pet fish...
It has over 448,000 members as of this article and even has its own Twitter account with over 500,000 followers. There’s an influx of hundreds of posts each month with members constantly sharing some of the most ridiculous, yet accurate, depictions of all things science.
Shared imagery often involves animals and the natural world, but it’s not just how they depict it, but also what they write. Besides disfigured animals and humans, illustrations that raise more questions than they actually answer, and crappy design in general, there’s also the occasional mislabeling (whether deliberate or not, nobody is truly sure) of illustrations that raise eyebrows at the very least.
More often than not, these diagrams are taken out of their academic and scientific contexts, making it raise even more eyebrows, though others, even within context, would still look odd making people think how is this scientific because of how they are visually depicted.
It is interesting to think that s**tposting is, in some shape or form, present in the actual scientific community, especially in physics. There is this metaphor of the spherical cow which is a highly simplified model of a complex real-life phenomenon where a problem is reduced to its simplest form so that brainy people could make the calculations more feasible, despite it being no longer applicable in reality. So, some scientists are used to this.
For more hilarious scientific oddities presented in image form on the internet, you can check out the Facebook group or follow their Twitter. Or just keep scrolling! But before you go, let us know what you thought of this. Do you have any stories to share about your textbooks? Leave us a comment below!
Looks like when influencers use photoshop to enlarge their butt, but the background gets a little bit of surgery too.
So.... angry about being happy, disgustingly happy, inconsolably happy, afraid of his own happiness, surprised that he's happy, and happy that he feels nothing.
But, she looks so happy! She's on her way to her own fruit viking costume!
The little white baby becomes a small black child who grows into a dancing teen girl who matures into 1980's yuppie man. Women spring fully formed from the ether, merge with the 80's yuppie to form a small white baby. Got it.
Let me explain the big chill is when all stars die and there is no more heat. The big crunch is when gravity collapses the universe into a black hole. Big rip is when the universe expands so much the fabric of spacetime unravels. Big snap is like big rip but the mini-dimesions unravel too and make a new universe. Death bubble are black holes that turn into strange matter holes that consume the whole universe.
You could literally say that about any mammal... and if you don't ignore the mouth and internal organs most mammals are doughnuts.
Note: this post originally had 60 images. It’s been shortened to the top 40 images based on user votes.
I can help with that. Be warned, it will require a lobotomy, and I can't even cut a coupon out without f*****g it up, so brain surgery is going to be a lot trickier. You're gonna have to pay upfront. In cash. I don't do Bitcoin. It's a scam.
Load More Replies...
You totally misused “begs the question.” Begging the question is an informal fallacy that occurs when an argument’s premises assume the truth of the conclusion, instead of supporting it. It is a type of circular reasoning: an argument that requires that the desired conclusion be true. It does not mean “the following question should be asked.”
I can help with that. Be warned, it will require a lobotomy, and I can't even cut a coupon out without f*****g it up, so brain surgery is going to be a lot trickier. You're gonna have to pay upfront. In cash. I don't do Bitcoin. It's a scam.
Load More Replies... You totally misused “begs the question.” Begging the question is an informal fallacy that occurs when an argument’s premises assume the truth of the conclusion, instead of supporting it. It is a type of circular reasoning: an argument that requires that the desired conclusion be true. It does not mean “the following question should be asked.”
