Scrutable

Tessa K wrote: ↑

Wed May 17, 2023 11:51 am

I'm wondering why spatial awareness is part of IQ testing when it seems a different category from problem solving, reasoning etc.

Any insights?

The general (and widely criticised) idea underlying IQ testing is that it's a statistical factor that emerges when you test a range of different cognitive abilities - based on the observation that scores on the different domains being tested tend to be correlated with each other.

I have problems with left and right too. It doesn't affect navigation, it's more about remembering what they're called.

I also don't have a problem using hands independently eg when I used to play the piano.

I was talking to someone last night who said she couldn't learn to knit because she couldn't move her hands independently at the same time.

I vaguely remember reading that children's brains aren't developed to judge distance and speed of an object which is why they're more likely to get run over crossing the road - which is an aspect of spatial awareness.

Gfamily wrote: ↑

Wed May 17, 2023 5:36 pm

Grumble wrote: ↑

Wed May 17, 2023 4:59 pm

Boustrophedon wrote: ↑

Wed May 17, 2023 3:49 pm

And another group of people have no ability to visualise at all let alone in 3D.

I don’t visualise things, but I’m quite good at spatial reasoning and awareness. It’s a bit like left and right, I just know which is which I don’t have to visualise it.

I generally have to mentally double check any Left/Right directions given, as it's not 100% immediate that I'll know which way that should be. My sister is the same, and she always asked anyone navigating from the passenger seat to go 'your side' / 'my side' for Right and Left respectively.

Changing from driving in the UK to driving in the US reversed left and right in directions for me. Because obviously a left turn is a turn on your side of the road, while a right turn is across oncoming traffic.

It didn't make any difference outside of driving though.

Grumble wrote: ↑

Wed May 17, 2023 10:06 pm

I wouldn’t be able to guess that, afaik chemical engineering involves very little chemistry. An appreciation of it, sure, but not really molecular structures

In my understanding chemical engineering is basically mechanical engineering with a focus on fluids, with the added twist that sometimes the fluids change in heat, state or volume when you mix them. There are people in chemical engineering departments who do things with molecular structures, but IMHO these people are really chemists making a canny play for chemical engineering funding.

nekomatic wrote: ↑

Thu May 18, 2023 5:28 pm

Grumble wrote: ↑

Wed May 17, 2023 10:06 pm

I wouldn’t be able to guess that, afaik chemical engineering involves very little chemistry. An appreciation of it, sure, but not really molecular structures

In my understanding chemical engineering is basically mechanical engineering with a focus on fluids, with the added twist that sometimes the fluids change in heat, state or volume when you mix them. There are people in chemical engineering departments who do things with molecular structures, but IMHO these people are really chemists making a canny play for chemical engineering funding.

What you are talking about is Fluid Mechanics, and certainly my job (in the oil and gas industry) could be considered largely this as it is focused mainly on moving and treating a multi-component fluid where the components change state at different temperatures and pressures, separating those components into streams which are easier to process, and processing those streams into commodities.

But many of my university modules (MEng in Chemical Engineering) were considering chemical reactions, turning feedstock chemicals into all manner of different things. My university course had close links with the large manufacturing areas in the North West and North East and companies like Unilever, ICI, etc were common places to get jobs.

The chemist plays with the chemicals and identifies how to make the desired product; the chemical engineer takes the laboratory reaction and scales it up to industrial scale. This is often more complex than it sounds because, eg, a chemist may barely notice a slight exothermic reaction, but when scaled up this means that generated heat has to be managed or the wrong reaction occurs.