Ox Bow Lakes - a Meander

I didn't enjoy physical geography at school, and nor did anyone else I've ever met. I've forgotten all I ever knew about boulder clay, water tables and synclines (actually, maybe they showed up in trigonometry?). For some reason, though, the lesson about ox-bow lakes stuck. I know exactly how they are formed, and like to hug the knowledge to my bosom, bringing it out just occasionally to amaze people. Only trouble is, everyone else seems to know already - even the people who are just as ignorant as me! Something about ox-bow lakes makes them particularly memorable. But what? It's not that they come up much in daily life, after all - at least round here.

P.S. If I'm right about this tendency to remember some facts more easily than others, it would make a good example of one of Bacon's 'Idols of the Tribe' - which I was trying to explain to my students the other week. In the past I've used the Monty Hall problem for this, but it just takes too long to convince people of the solution.

Ox Bow Lakes - a Meander

I didn't enjoy physical geography at school, and nor did anyone else I've ever met. I've forgotten all I ever knew about boulder clay, water tables and synclines (actually, maybe they showed up in trigonometry?). For some reason, though, the lesson about ox-bow lakes stuck. I know exactly how they are formed, and like to hug the knowledge to my bosom, bringing it out just occasionally to amaze people. Only trouble is, everyone else seems to know already - even the people who are just as ignorant as me! Something about ox-bow lakes makes them particularly memorable. But what? It's not that they come up much in daily life, after all - at least round here.

P.S. If I'm right about this tendency to remember some facts more easily than others, it would make a good example of one of Bacon's 'Idols of the Tribe' - which I was trying to explain to my students the other week. In the past I've used the Monty Hall problem for this, but it just takes too long to convince people of the solution.