Does the galaxy need weight watchers?
January 6th, 2009
I found a article on Fox news about the recent discovery that our galaxy, the Milky Way, is significantly larger then scientists had previously though. While I find this quite interesting I was disappointed by one small part of the article:
“Scientists mapped the Milky Way in a more detailed, three-dimensional way and found that it’s 15 percent larger in breadth. More important, it’s denser, with 50 percent more mass, which is like weight.” Emphasis mine.
Like weight? Really? Now I know this may be nit-picking and is a small distinction but as anyone who has taken a basic high school science class knows, mass and weight are not the same thing. I understand that they are similar, and the units of measurement have the same names, but there is a major difference. The point of journalism is to educate the populace, not misinform them. All it would take is a few more words, to not only give an accurate description of this amazing discovery but, to potentially enlighten a few people as to the difference between mass and weight.
”… mass, which is the amount of material in an object.”
Four more words, that’s all it would take. And I doubt anyone who can’t understand that would be reading an article on this subject.
Or, maybe our galaxy just needs to hit the gym.
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Tags: Fox News, Milky Way, Stupid, Weight Watchers
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 at 7:35 pm and is filed under Media, Science.
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Does the galaxy need weight watchers?
January 6th, 2009
I found a article on Fox news about the recent discovery that our galaxy, the Milky Way, is significantly larger then scientists had previously though. While I find this quite interesting I was disappointed by one small part of the article:
“Scientists mapped the Milky Way in a more detailed, three-dimensional way and found that it’s 15 percent larger in breadth. More important, it’s denser, with 50 percent more mass, which is like weight.” Emphasis mine.
Like weight? Really? Now I know this may be nit-picking and is a small distinction but as anyone who has taken a basic high school science class knows, mass and weight are not the same thing. I understand that they are similar, and the units of measurement have the same names, but there is a major difference. The point of journalism is to educate the populace, not misinform them. All it would take is a few more words, to not only give an accurate description of this amazing discovery but, to potentially enlighten a few people as to the difference between mass and weight.
”… mass, which is the amount of material in an object.”
Four more words, that’s all it would take. And I doubt anyone who can’t understand that would be reading an article on this subject.
Or, maybe our galaxy just needs to hit the gym.
These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
Tags: Fox News, Milky Way, Stupid, Weight Watchers
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 at 7:35 pm and is filed under Media, Science.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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