[jessriedel]

There's nothing in that article that the layman can use to predict anything, i.e., the reader will not be able to answer any questions afterwards that aren't directly addressed in the original article. That's a sign that those sorts of explanations give the feeling of understanding, but don't actually impart knowledge.

If someone writes "there's a war in Syria", then the reader can accurately predict that there will be an above-average number of bombed out buildings, and probably lots of refugees on the border. But if someone writes "Rabi oscillations are when very tiny things flip back and forth", there are no non-trivial questions the reader can answer. The reason is that the reader knows roughly what "war" is and what a country is and that "Syria" is a country. But when you tell them tiny things are flipping...all they know is that tiny things are flipping. (Ask "do you think you can catch the tiny thing on it's edge part way through it's flip?" Or "Do the tiny things flip faster or slower than sound waves?" The reader will have no idea.)

In other words, "Energy makes it go!": http://www.textbookleague.org/103feyn.htm