Re: [APML] A sad Time best picture

["Paul Howell" <paul@howell-ltd.com>]

The press unfailingly massacre technical stories. I don't think I have
ever read an account of a plane crash precipitated by a slow speed
stall that was not wrongly interpreted to mean that the engines had
stopped working. Near earth orbit is generally referred to as 'outer
space'. Events that develop slowly to an unimpressive maximum are
trumpeted as EVENTS NOT TO BE MISSED. We see this every solar
perihelion. Meanwhile significant stories are missed altogether.

I teach a survey class in astronomy as part of being a grad student.
One day I was illustrating the importance of not mixing units in an
equation by dividing a measurement in yards by a measurement in feet.
I pointed to a student and said "now this is obviously wrong because
there are how many feet in a yard?" This U.S. student who graduated
from high school said "I dunno". A colleague who teaches a different
section of the same class posed this question on a test "How many days
in an Earth year?" Three (college) students got it wrong.

-P

> I agree completely. A surprising number of "educated people" don't
understand that the Earth rotates, or why seasons occur, or even what
a galaxy is in the most basic sense. Most people also don't known that
the continents move slowly, or what viruses are, or what PH is, or how
an aerofoil works, or what's the difference between DC and AC current,
or what a watt is...
> --
> Matt BenDaniel
> matt@starmatt.com
> http://starmatt.com
>
>
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