science

Is this a pigeon?

Is this a pigeon? is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Is this a pigeon? rather than just read about it. In short: Is this a pigeon? (Japanese: これは鳩ですか?, Hepburn: Kore wa hato desu ka?) is an Internet meme and quote of the protagonist from the 1990s Japanese anime television series The Brave Fighter of Sun Fighbird.

Key takeaways

Is this a pigeon? belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Is this a pigeon? to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Is this a pigeon? from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Is this a pigeon? (Japanese: これは鳩ですか?, Hepburn: Kore wa hato desu ka?) is an Internet meme and quote of the protagonist from the 1990s Japanese anime television series The Brave Fighter of Sun Fighbird. The image originates from a scene where the character mistakenly identifies a butterfly as a pigeon. The image was originally posted on Tumblr.

Origin The meme features Yutaro Katori, an android made by professor Hiroshi Amano, who misidentifies a butterfly as a pigeon while studying terrestrial nature in a scene from Season 1, Episode 3 of The Brave Fighter of Sun Fighbird, which first aired in Japan in 1991. The scene was uploaded to Tumblr in 2011, spawning many variations and becoming a popular meme where the butterfly and Katori's subtitle are relabeled to suggest a different mistaken identification. It had another run of popularity in 2018.

Reception On June 27, 2013, BuzzFeed highlighted the meme in their compilation article titled "27 Subtitles That Have Gone Awesomely Wrong." Mashable described it as a new Distracted boyfriend meme of 2018. The Daily Dot described it as the best meme template of 2018, while Thrillist described it as the dankest memes of the 2010s.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Is this a pigeon?

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Is this a pigeon? claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Is this a pigeon? before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Is this a pigeon? ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Is this a pigeon?

In research: Is this a pigeon? appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Is this a pigeon? in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Is this a pigeon? is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Film and television memes, Internet memes introduced in 2011, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Is this a pigeon? outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Is this a pigeon?” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Is this a pigeon? in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Is this a pigeon? means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Is this a pigeon? out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Is this a pigeon? in simple terms?

Why does Is this a pigeon? matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Is this a pigeon??

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Is this a pigeon?.