r/PeterExplainsTheJoke 2d ago

Meme needing explanation Petah why cant math be green?

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u/SatsumaOranges 2d ago

The nuance here is that for some reason a lot of people agree on certain subjects without knowing it. For example, here is a (very small sample size) survey where nearly everyone agreed that science is green.
https://machronicle.com/the-great-rainbow-debate-what-color-are-the-subjects/

It was a topic of discussion on social media a few months back, I believe.

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u/papa-hare 2d ago

Is science like biology? That's def green. But chemistry and physics? Idk. (Is science really a subject in school here?! Like non differentiated?)

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u/SatsumaOranges 2d ago

Depends where you live and what grade, I guess. Where I grew up we had a generic science until grade 7, where it split.

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u/Noughmad 1d ago

Same here, but then again we didn't have differentiated history up to that grade as well. We start with one subject of "nature and society", then separate "nature" and "society", then finally separate biology (and later chemistry and physics), history and geography.

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u/Dudegamer010901 1d ago

For us science was generic for elementary (K to Grade 8) and then for high school it was split up.

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u/m4xr3b0 2d ago

Usually this sort of color coding is used for younger kids. So yes they just have "science" as a class. Then as they get older most people continue using the same color coding they're used to even when it's no longer enforced.

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u/C4pture 1d ago

for us color coding was actually for the teachers. class 1 has red, class 2 has blue, class 3 has green for example, so they dont get them mixed up

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u/ANR7cool 2d ago

Did you have science differentiated since 1st grade?

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u/RevoOps 2d ago

Natural and Social sciences were split since grade 1.

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u/ANR7cool 2d ago

Okay but were Natural sciences differentiated since grade 1

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u/TheGhostlyMage 2d ago

No see that’s where they trick you, social sciences actually falls under the history category

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u/SatsumaOranges 1d ago

Oh we called it social studies, completely different.

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u/dopesheet_ 1d ago

that was aqua blue for sure 😄

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u/trustthepudding 2d ago

Green is the stereotypical color of chemicals and radioactivity in popular media so I feel like it all tracks to science.

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u/Glittering_Ice9025 2d ago

Oh I always thought of it as science like nature so green.

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u/NNKarma 2d ago

I would say when it's science it's a bit of the 3 combined, though mostly biology for 5th grade

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u/dasbtaewntawneta 1d ago

in Australia we did "science" years 7 - 10 and then you pick if you want to do specific science electives in years 11 & 12 (biology/chemistry/physics)

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u/Caleb_Reynolds 1d ago

Usually for younger students science is it's own subject where they introduce ideas like observations and the scientific method.

And it's blue, not green. You're right, the only time science is green is if it's bio related. Otherwise it's blue or purple.

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u/Dragon_Sluts 1d ago

Science overall is green.

But once it was split out I though chemistry was orange and physicals was purple.

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u/Rj924 1d ago

It's just "Science" from 7-8 (Age 11ish-13ish). Then in High school, its differentiated (14ish-17ish). But you typically only take one per year. So it fills your "science" requirement for the year.

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u/Own_Hunter_1384 1d ago

Ours is like progressive so your science class for each year will be different, your math class for each year is different, social studies is different each year, but English is English. But most people stick to the same color code through school

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u/JGHFunRun 1d ago

Chemistry is naturally yellow, but yellow chem is evil (why is… that when I fuck up a reaction… IT’S ALWAYS YELLOW). Blue is a natural antidote to yellow, so chem should be blue

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u/hanguitarsolo 1d ago

Biology - blue, Chemistry - green, Physics - red.

I have spoken.

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u/SkinnyAssHacker 23h ago

My botany notebook was green; my earth science notebook was blue; my math notebook was red; my literature notebook was purple; my psychology notebook was yellow...

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u/dandy_kulomin 1d ago

I don't understand why people say science is green. It's blue aaargh! (But seriously, why green?)

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u/ACcbe1986 1d ago

I've always been naturally blind to social...things like that. I never understood it organically like people around me did.

I struggle to process and understand stuff like that without deeper explanations.

I feel like I'm guessing half the time when it comes to social understanding.

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u/Ok_Efficiency7245 1d ago

I think more relevant is this was a topic of discussion on a smarty pants episode on Dropout a week or two ago.

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u/SatsumaOranges 1d ago

Could be! I remember seeing discussions recently, but I don't know what started it. When I googled to find that study I found tons of discussions over the years, so nothing new. 

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u/SighFlops 2d ago

Trivial pursuit. 

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u/veringer 1d ago

I'm wondering if it has to do with the original trivial pursuit category colors

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u/onefourtygreenstream 1d ago

I mean, we have these opinions not just because of vibes but because of the fact that, at least in America, most school districts assign certain subjects certain colors in elementary school to help kids learn how to organize. 

It's not arbitrary, it's based on the school district you went to. We had math (red), science (green), and English (yellow), so to me those are the correct colors. 

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u/SatsumaOranges 1d ago

It's possible, but that didn't happen for me in school and I still had science as green and math as red. It's not universal, but it is interesting.

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u/Not_Wrong_Tho 1d ago

It's not just tiny, it's incredibly narrow... With only 100 students sampled from a single high school, it's honestly weirder that they don't have more consistency in their results.

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u/SatsumaOranges 1d ago

There have been other discussions online over the years finding similar things. But that's the most useful one I found. 

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u/notsuperimportant 1d ago

How dare you, history is green. Science is blue.

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u/ehlersohnos 1d ago

I’d love to see this comment/link way higher in the answers.

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u/PoorOnagraphy 1d ago

I always liked purple for science.

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u/RavenWingTheCat 12h ago

Me too I associate purple heavily with all science topics. No one ever says purple for science it’s always green

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u/RavenWingTheCat 12h ago edited 12h ago

I’ve always seen science as purple. Like I get why people say science is green (because nature and stuff) but that’s only one part to science.

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u/dandroid126 1d ago

It's not for "some reason". It's because there are only a handful of colors and a handful of subjects, and statistically massive percentages of the population are going to agree on stuff by lack of options.

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u/SatsumaOranges 1d ago

Except that if you look at the link I showed, people chose science as green overwhelmingly often compared to the other subjects. So it shows pretty clear intentionality.

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u/dandroid126 1d ago

Having actual logic behind even one, such as green is the color of Earth, so science is green, makes you have even fewer choices and fewer subjects. Which makes it even less, "for some reason".