A warm snap
Feb 11th, 2008 by handolio
I know, I know: nothing for three weeks and I come back with a cheap shot, but really.
In a candidate for Bad Science, the Mail has it that temperatures at the weekend were TWICE their seasonal average of 8 degrees Celsius.
Science pedants the world over will tell you that’s unlikely, as it equates to something in the region of 289 degrees Celsius and we’d all be dead.
I’d say that incurring the wrath of the scientific community would be enough reward for one day, but I leave you with article’s opening sentence:
Spring blew us a warm little kiss yesterday - and hundreds dashed outside to catch it on their cheeks.
Well that’s nice. Now can you let the journalists back in?
Me confused. Had I not known better, I’d have written than 16 is ‘twice eight’, too. Why is this not the case? (I can’t think of a way of writing this that doesn’t sound churlish and petulant. I don’t mean it to be; I’m genuinely interested to know what’s special about the temperature scale.)
Sorry, should learn to explain my pedantic outbursts better:
Temperature is a measurement of the kinetic energy contained within matter. The scale starts at zero degrees kelvin, “absolute zero”, a theoretical state at which matter has no kinetic energy. It’s minus 273.15 degrees Celsius, thus the 8 degree Celsius average temperature referred to in the article is technically 281.15 kelvin.
Because the scale doesn’t start at zero degrees Celsius, but instead at zero kelvin, a temperature of 16 degrees Celsius can’t accurately be said to be TWICE, or even twice, a temperature of 8 degrees Celsius. It’s actually 289.15 kelvin - a much less impressive 3% warmer.
Nitpicking, I admit, but something a journalist should understand, no? There’s a better and fuller explanation here, science fans.
Hope you’re well, by the way?
Ahhhhhh. I see. The more charitable part of me remembers those times when I’ve had to simplify a factoid in order either to make it fit or to ensure that I don’t get sidetracked by technicalities, but then the rest of me thinks “yeah, but this is the Daily Mail; screw empathy.”
Yes, I’m well, thanks. Taking an impromptu day off tomorrow which will be all kinds of wonderful. You?
On the subject of Daily Mail bashing, this one’s a wonder (http://tinyurl.com/ywgc9l):
Headline: “Revealed: Islamist extremists have penetrated the heart of Britain”
Lede: “Islamist extremists have infiltrated Government and key public utilities to pass sensitive information to terrorists, the security services have warned.”
First actual example of said infiltration: “A terrorist jailed for his involvement in a bomb attack on the Paris Metro later came to England and got a job as a traffic warden.”
A traffic warden, no less. Surely the only solution is to send Richard Littlejohn down to the white cliffs of Dover with a basket full of bulldogs to hurl at the swarming jihadist armies.