[NOISE] Newspapers and basic science (was: US Power Outages)

[iang@cs.berkeley.edu (Ian Goldberg)]

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In article <Pine.3.89.9608112235.A16390-0100000@netcom3>,
Z.B. <zachb@netcom.com> wrote:
>Now that may not sound like too much, but 
>the lines were carrying at least 3000Mw of electricity, enough "to power 
>3-1/2 Seattles for a day" (quote from local newspaper).

<GRUMBLE>
Watts are a measure of energy per unit time; it makes sense to say
"60 W powers a light bulb", not "60 W powers a light bulb for one hour".
</GRUMBLE>

But my _favourite_ example of this was a newspaper clipping I used to have
that said that in the previous month, the city had received "160 square
pounds of rain".   That just defied common sense.

   - Ian "closely followed by temperatures 'doubling' (which happens more
          often when they use Celcius)"

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