stumping my teachers

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I research science like a child eats candy! Or a teen drinks soda! but I don't get the best grades in the class. in fact, my grades can be a little... low. I have researched astronomy for 5 years before my high school astronomy class and still get D's C's and B's.

But one thing I seem to be good at is stumping my teachers with questions that completely stop them in their tracks. Like one time, my astronomy teacher was talking about mars skies turning blue during sunset, and I raised my hand and asked if that effect was similar to the effect in Raleigh Scattering, which is why OUR sky is blue! My whole class was yelling "you stumped him!" to me... but I thought it was a fairly reasonable question to ask.

I have a LOT of examples of this, but I don't want to bore you all! But I wanted to ask if any other people have similar experiences with asking advanced and complex questions to your teachers or to other people.





PS. Also, If anyone could, can anyone tell me WHY I cannot find any information about Venus' lack of a magnetic field in any of my numerous astronomy books?

I've never experienced this in school. I was never interested in anything that would be useful in a school setting. I have on occasion asked people questions that have completely stopped them in their tracks but it doesn't happen often and it's not to do with any knowledge or special interest.

I have no idea what you're talking about either tbh. Raleigh Scattering? What the hell is a Raleigh Scattering? We never had astronomy at my school. If they ever explained why the sky was blue in any other class then that information is long gone.

I'm curious as to why you aren't at the top of your class considering it's clearly a special interest of yours. What's up with that?


I don't know why your astronomy books don't cover Venus' magnetic field situation but I've uploaded an article about it. Follow the link.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=68WW4880

It's from 2002 and I haven't read it so it may potentially be old or irrelevant. Who knows?

If you want more you can search for academic journal articles using google scholar. You probably don't have access to them if you're still in school but if you send me a PM I can find them and upload them for you.

I have a very poor memory, I mean, a VERY poor memory. I also have allergy problem, and a issue with fatique, so, although I am very interested in the subject, its very hard for me to concentrate, stay awake, and remember anything. didn't help that the class was right after lunch.

I have a whole list of things wrong with me... I researched science for about 5 years now and I can't remember much of it...

That sucks. So what are you like now, way ahead of everyone else in Astronomy but you can't remember the basics?

Let me know if the article was useful.

It's really frustrating when you can understand concepts but not remember the data. I guess it's kind of like the way I learned to do algebra long before I ever memorized the multiplication table, even though it's supposed to be one of the basics.

Yeah, I ask questions that the profs don't know about. Usually it's because nobody knows yet, and people are still researching it. I'm in college now--if the profs don't know something, it's generally either out of their field or else new research.

It's easier in college. Except for a few egotistical jerks, most everybody knows that there's too much to learn for any one person to know it all, and won't be offended if you ask something they don't know. Everybody has to specialize; and if you want to be a proper expert in your specialty, you can't spend all your time learning stuff outside it. So, instead of assuming that they know everything we will need to know, they send us off to do our own research, from the journals and such. The closer you get to grad school, the more of your own learning you get to do.

This quarter I'm taking one freshman-level class, and it's reminding me just how much I hate it when the class focuses on stuffing data into your head instead of giving you the tools you need to collect your own data. But it's a freshman class. The profs kind of underestimate freshman; they figure they are barely out of high school and probably haven't cracked a scientific journal in their lives, even when they are quite bright people who can be trusted to do their own research. It's bad enough if you are a freshman. If you're a senior stuck in there with the freshmen, it can get absolutely irritating.