It drives me up the wall when some media outlet is reporting dimensions or other numerical parameters and get it so wrong that 5 seconds of “. . . does that make sense . . .” thinking would prove it wrong:
California’s Department of Transportation and C.C. Meyers Construction (along with lots of contractors, consultants managers and engineers) closed the SF-Oakland Bay Bridge this last weekend. They demolished and removed an approximately 300 foot long existing concrete bridge section (~6,500 tons) and replaced it with the new prefabricated span (~7,000 tons) that was rolled into place using a computer controlled jacking system. A little finishing on the ends and they opened it 11 hours ahead of schedule. Great job by all!
In their reports, the media continually moved the length of the span to larger and larger dimensions. It started out as “. . . a little over 300 feet . . .”, then “. . . about 310 feet”, “. . . 320 feet”, on up to “. . . 330 feet . . .”. Being the geek I am, I took a little notice, smiling at the ‘media folks’ who seem to have to exaggerate as part of their job assignments.
Then, the next morning’s newspaper really got my attention: According to it, the replaced bridge section was “. . . 330 yards in length . . .”:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
But that didn’t trigger writing this diatribe.
I just saw an evening TV news article showing ". . . the first snowfall of the coming winter in Germany. . . " They reported that it wasn’t very deep: “. . . about 10cm . . .”, while showing pictures of what looked like ~10cm of snow being pushed off some park tables. What really got my attention was when the (American) presenter reminded all of us that the 10cm of snow was “. . . equivalent to about a half inch . . .”!
I’m certain there are lots of folks who can’t tell the difference between a foot and a yard unless clearly shown, but when you have a picture where there is clearly ~4" of snow being handled, how could you possibly mis-identify it as being 1/2" deep?
Now most will say “so what?”. My personal thinking is if a conversion doesn’t count or is going to be subject to serious error, then don’t use it. If it’s important enough to measure, convert and report, then please make a significant effort to get it close to right.
Rant over and control of the calipers returned to the (in)competent!
Happy RRing,
Jerry
