What Really Is More Difficult?

[Jahulaye]

Rocket science or brain surgery?

[Old_Geezer]

Brain surgery whilst blasting off in a rocket.

[New Judge]

Define "difficult"

[jno]

people here seemed on the whole to think brain surgery was trickier

https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,,-79346,00.html

[pixie374]

Rocket science- it would be far more boring.

[jim360]

How is blowing things up boring?

[pixie374]

Oh- fair enough! Lol

[jno]

I thought one of the aims was not to blow rockets up.

[jim360]

Well to be sure you're only supposed to blow some of it up.

[Barmaid]

Does it depend on who is doing it?

[EDDIE51]

Rocket science was defined by way back in 1867
https://spaceflightsystems.grc.nasa.gov/education/rocket/TRCRocket/rocket_principles.html
It is a statement of the basic law of motion, > action and reaction are equal and opposite. It can never change or get more complicated.
Brain Surgery is far more complicated,it changes and gets more complicated all the time.

[jno]

[Cloverjo]

Brilliant, jno :))

As we're not in chatterbank I'd better put a serious answer in.
I guess brain surgery is more difficult as everyone's brains are different and serious harm could be caused by one tiny slip, whereas rocket science is knowing the right equations to use and plugging in the right numbers.

[Old_Geezer]

Brain surgery is easy. It's achieving an improvement in the patient that's somewhat less easy.

[jim360]

Rocket science will also involve building the things, which takes it beyond the realm of "simple" maths.

I'd suggest that it's a meaningless comparison. Brain surgeons would probably find Rocket science very difficult, and I wouldn't trust a Rocket Scientist within a mile of me on the operating table. Still, if I had to pick one as more "difficult" I'd probably go for Brain Surgery, considering that people's lives are in their hands in a far more profound way than Rocket Scientists would ever have to deal with.

[Hopkirk]

Not as hard as herding cats.

[New Judge]

“It [rocket science] can never change or get more complicated.
Brain Surgery is far more complicated,it changes and gets more complicated all the time.”

Ah but it can, Eddie. Look at the difference in the techniques and technology used for, say, launching the first artificial satellite, “Sputnik” in 1957, through the manned orbital missions, the Apollo programme to the moon, the International Space Station and up to the deep space missions where objects are successfully put into orbit around distant planets.

The science behind these later projects is light years away from simply blasting a rocket into the upper atmosphere and watching it fall back to the Earth.

[Hopkirk]

I can do rocket science.

You just the blue touchpaper.

[Hopkirk]

... light ...

[jno]

jim, I wonder if that doesn't go under the head of rocket engineering, which seems to be a more complex business than just knowing the science.

[New Judge]

You forgot to "retire immediately". :-)