Well, this IS the ignorance thread, so I'm doing a good job.

Hell, that's easy. If it makes more money for the drug company and cost you more for drugs, then that's the law. :)

Running electricity through a coil produces magnetism which moves a piece of metal.

A solenoid produces mechanical force (movement) and a switch does not. ;)

Ok smartass, tell him how a starter on an engine works...

You turn the key, something magical happens, and the car goes when you push the long skinny pedal, the one next to the brake.

We really don't need to know much more than that, although I am heartened by this quest for knowledge.

I think that is what's confusing him. Of the zillion uses for a solenoid, the starter solenoid on a car is the one that replicates a switch.
OK, the starter needs lots of amperage so the cable(wire) from the battery to the starter is huge and kept as short a possible to minimize resistance losses. Therefore the switch is down between the battery and starter and you can't reach it, in fact you'd have to get out and open the hood then reach way down in the grimey bits to flip the switch.
More gooder to park your butt behind the wheel and let the solenoid flip the switch for you. Yeah, the solenoid is electrically operated but that's a little bitty wire that can be as long as you want. OK? :confused:

I am ignorant of many things.

My first job was as an electrician, though I knew nothing of circuits and wiring. Since then, I have spent years as a professional programmer, yet there is much programming jargon I don't understand... like a musician who can't read music. Now I'm a professional graphics designer, and I know little about Photoshop (I mostly use Paint Shop Pro).

For years, I thought that the word "nonplussed" meant "to be indifferent; unimpressed." Also, I sometimes catch myself saying "irregardless," though it's not a real word; despite my efforts it hasn't been banished from my vocabulary.

Like others, I am ignorant of sports, but that is a voluntary ignorance... I'm sure I could learn if I had even the vaguest desire to do so.

No doubt there are many more things of which I am ignorant of my ignorance. For instance, how to word the previous sentence in a way that isn't awkward.

Dave Matthews Band, Wolf.

this user obviously has an inverted obsession with Dave Matthews. I suspect that he wants to sleep with him. but that's just my opinion.

Not only did I not know this, but it has driven me fucking insane for most of my adult life. I find myself in the shower, wanting to somehow mutilate and kill the shower curtain (no kidding, I think I've actually punched it). Something about the wet plastic sticking to my wet body sends me into a less than sane fit of rage. Then I get even more pissed because I realize I'm angry with an inanimate object and, until now, had no clue where the god damn wind was coming from!!!! So, in summation thanks for the explanation - at least now I can get pissed at the pressure instead!

UT knows this one - he explained this to me one day over lunch - and I actually understood it! ask 'im - he'll 'splain it to ya real good!

One thing I'm totally ignorant of is reading music. I was completely impressed by my 7 year old son who brought home music sheets and starting playing a song on his trumpet - He was mastering(?) something that I had no experience with. It was inspiring and humbling...

I thought it was the heat from the shower rising that caused the low pressure, but no matter. Get a curtain, or curtain liner, with magnets at the bottom. ;)

As an adult, you are free to revise your surroundings according to any rules you see fit. Shower without a curtain and just buy a second floor mat to soak up the excess water. Nobody says you have to put up with some dumb curtain that you hate so much you punch it.

Holy shit! I thought that too. Up until I read your post. Then I went and looked it up. At least I never used it in conversation.

Thank you. I learned something today.

Dude! I'm not alone! So this must be what it feels like when doves cry.

I looked up nonplussed in the oxford english dictionary, and they actually have the contrary meaning (meaning not flustered, not excited) listed as a new non-standard colloquial usage in America.

So is it correct? Not technically, but the usage has some basis.