Common sense - if you knock it perhaps you lack it

There is a PowerPoint slide package published on the web (ECD Law) by Taser lawyer Mr. Brave that pooh-poohs the application of common sense (and I think he, to his peril, includes fundamental logic and philosophical arguments in this category). He practically dares that such common sense should ever challenge "science".

Well excuse me Mr. Brave.

If you've paid the slightest attention to the history of science, and the meaning and intent of the words hypothesis and theory, then you should know better. Science is often 'Science Du Jour'.

For example - one year milk (or beef, or coffee) is good for you, then next year it isn't. As comedian Lewis Black once ranted, "Everything I know about health has changed ten times in my lifetime." Another example, paleoanthropologists find a new bone that destroys all their previous detailed theories. This happens in many fields. Sometimes the change is a subtle improvement, other times it is a complete do-over.

So Mr. Brave, don't be overly confident in science over common sense. A bit of both is better than either one by itself.

PS: The X26 taser is 151 mA RMS with a primary frequency component at just 19 Hz. Put that data point on your chart and smoke it.



We know that the taser 'Induces pain'. We know that the taser 'Locks up muscles'. Taser has admitted that it can 'Interfere with breathing'. Some observers claim that the taser could cause the heart to behave erratically [LINK].

So which dot is correct? Average or RMS?

And as was discussed in a previous post, a frequency component (such as 19 Hz) is a sine wave, just like a sine wave.