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Media mistakes

Black Hole said:
eg "three times cheaper than".
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Not forgetting "three shades whiter". Does the normal punter know the definition of a shade? Is a table of shades (clothes, teeth etc ) readily available?
What does "three times cheaper" really mean? A third of the price?
 
Just heard a football commentator saying that the two teams had played each other six times before. Team A had never won and Team B had only lost once.

I am open to someone explaining to me how that can be.
 
  1. An idiot commentator talking rubbish - nothing new there!*
  2. Counting a draw as a lost game. I refer you to point 1.
*Private Eye has many such items in the "Commentatorballs" section. (Originally Colemanballs after David Coleman and his numerous mistakes)
 
Well, 12,304 kg ≈︎ 27,126 lb, 1 ton = 20 cwt = 160 st = 2,240 lb, ∴︎ 12,304 kg = 12.11 tons.

It would be inconsistent to use tonnes in that table, because every other example gives Imperial. Therefore it's their conversion which is incorrect. Given that the figures probably came from the Americans, I expect they were originally in Imperial (or US). Is the US ton different from the Imperial ton?

...quick google...

OK, the US ton is 2,000 lb (I should have known that, I forgot). So 12.3 tons US is 11,158 kg, and 12.3 tons Imperial is 12,497 kg.

Either way, they're wrong.
 
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Black Hole said:
OK, the US ton is 2,000 lb (I should have known that, I forgot). So 12.3 tons US is 11,158 kg, and 12.3 tons Imperial is 12,497 kg.
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My understanding is that 2000ib is what is referred to as a 'short ton'.
Maybe the Imperialists think those in the US are a bit short ....
 
It's just a metric ton (1000 kg). Surely that's not too difficult to work out from the context. Everyone seems to use it.

Next you can start on fluid ounces, pints and gallons between here and there.
 
Why don't we use a standard mass measurement independent of US/UK differences? Oh, we (well some of us) do - SI derived units g/Kg/tonne. Then we can forget about short ton.
prpr said:
It's just a metric ton (1000 kg).
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Tonne? Debatable I suppose. Should it be metric ton or metric tonne. Is the latter tautology?
 
prpr said:
It's just a metric ton (1000 kg). Surely that's not too difficult to work out from the context.
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OK, then why are all the other similar examples Imperial on the left with the equivalent in metric on the right? When did "ton" become the accepted spelling of "tonne"? When did the US start working in metric??

I think a stupid, under-pressure copy editor didn't realise / understand there is a difference. Whether it's easy to work out isn't the point* – it's still a media mistake.

* Is it though? What is the actual weight? We don't know, and can only guess.
 
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Black Hole said:
OK, then why are all the other similar examples Imperial on the left with the equivalent in metric on the right? When did "ton" become the accepted spelling of "tonne"? When did the US start working in metric??
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I dunno. You didn't quote your source, so how was anyone supposed to know it was American?
Nobody really understands "tonnes". I'd forgotten that the original (when we first did this metric stuff) grammes became grams. So I expect most people assume tonnes and tons are the same.
I think a stupid, under-pressure copy editor didn't realise / understand there is a difference.
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That's journos for you. A vague approximation of the facts, especially if it's anything scientific/technical etc.
it's still a media mistake.
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Did I say it wasn't?
What is the actual weight? We don't know, and can only guess.
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As EEPhil said.
 
prpr said:
You didn't quote your source, so how was anyone supposed to know it was American?
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Yeah, OK, but you could have guessed the article is about the bunker buster bomb used against Iran. What staggers me is the bomb weighs 12 tons, and the B2 stealth 'plane can carry two of them! And they did it on a round trip from Missouri over 37 hours (with air refuelling), with another decoy fleet going west instead of east.
 
Black Hole said:
What is the actual weight?
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I can hear the QI alarm sounding! This weight vs mass dilemma is complicated enough (for journalists) in SI units. I don't understand it in imperial/US units. We all know what is meant by weight. As for what the actual weight/mass is :dunno: Big!
 
Weight is mass under the influence of gravity. It's the figure you would get if you put whatever it is on a weighing machine which works by measuring the downward force, as practically all do (springs, load cells... anything except a comparison mass). About the only times mass gets measured and not weight are in the kitchen (on a balance, with comparison masses) or at the doctors (if they use the sliding balance mass thing).

In my physics lab, we determined mass by the test object being oscillated orthogonally to gravity and solving the spring equation.

So I'm sticking with weight.
 
Black Hole said:
About the only times mass gets measured and not weight are in the kitchen (on a balance, with comparison masses) or at the doctors (if they use the sliding balance mass thing).
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Aren't the kitchen / doctor's balances also measuring weight, not mass? When in balance there is an equal force (i.e. weight) either side of the balance point?
 
Black Hole said:
So I'm sticking with weight.
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So that should be in Newtons not Kilogrammes!
NPL said:
Mass

Mass is a measure of the amount of material in an object, directly related to the number and type of atoms present in the object. Mass does not change with a body's position, movement or alteration of its shape unless material is added or removed. The unit of mass in the SI system is the kilogram (kg).

Weight

In the trading of goods, weight is taken to mean the same as mass and is measured in kilograms. Scientifically, however, it is normal to state that the weight of a body is the gravitational force acting on it and hence it should be measured in newtons (N), and that this force depends on the local force due to gravity. To add to the confusion, a weight is an artefact of calibrated mass normally made from a dense metal. So, unfortunately, weight has three meanings and care should always be taken to appreciate which one is meant in a particular context.
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...and since we all know the context there's no problem. :)
 
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