Journo hasn't heard of absolute zero and can't multiply

On Sun, 24 Apr 2011 12:45:10 +0100, Bill Wright wrote:

Yesterday saw the mercury
top 27 degrees in parts of
London - double the average
temperature for April of 14C.

Fair point that 27 isn't double 14 ("nearly double" would have been
better) but I think your reference to absolute zero is rather spurious.
The comment is surely referring to 'subjective' temperature, not
'thermodynamic' temperature, and subjectively I would say that 27C feels
much more like 'double' 14C than a 4.5% or so increase.

Richard.
http://www.rtrussell.co.uk/

Richard Russell wrote:
On Sun, 24 Apr 2011 12:45:10 +0100, Bill Wright wrote:

Yesterday saw the mercury
top 27 degrees in parts of
London - double the average
temperature for April of 14C.

Fair point that 27 isn't double 14 ("nearly double" would have been
better) but I think your reference to absolute zero is rather spurious.
The comment is surely referring to 'subjective' temperature, not
'thermodynamic' temperature, and subjectively I would say that 27C feels
much more like 'double' 14C than a 4.5% or so increase.

Richard.
http://www.rtrussell.co.uk/

I think that when making subjective comparisons it's best to keep away
from expressions like 'double' that have a precise mathematical meaning.
Subjective comments can only use subjective words and expressions like
'hotter' and 'much hotter'. It is a nonsense to say that something is
subjectively twice as hot. On what do you base it? Yesterday I was
mending my bike in the bright still sunshine with the heat reflecting up
at me from the concrete. I moved into the shade and I was subjectively
ten times more comfortable, so on that basis the temperature was a tenth
of what it had been in the sun.

Bill

"Brian Gaff" wrote in message
...
I thought we were not allowed to use Mercury these days in any case, highly
toxic and all that stuff.

Brian


That can't be right, they're trying to ban the old style light bulbs that
didn't have nasty mercury vapour in them.

--

Brian Gregory. (In the UK)

To email me remove the letter vee.

"J G Miller" wrote in message ...
On Sunday, April 24th, 2011 at 18:50:07h +0100, Brian Gaff wrote:

I thought we were not allowed to use Mercury these days in any case,
highly toxic and all that stuff.

Exactly. That is why all those Mercury payphones disappeared.

http://www.englishphoneboxes.COM/mercury-telephone-kiosks.html
The firm I worked for at the time has a contract with mercury payphones with a three hour response.
I only got called out once, on a Sunday afternoon, to New Brighton Promenade,
some dopy woman had got her bank card stuck in the slot.
When I got there the card was still in there but the woman had gone.
I retrieved the card and posted it in the letterbox at the nearest Barclays

The card was merely a cheque guarantee card so was useless anyway.

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

Bill Wright wrote:


I think that when making subjective comparisons it's best to keep away
from expressions like 'double' that have a precise mathematical meaning.
Subjective comments can only use subjective words and expressions like
'hotter' and 'much hotter'. It is a nonsense to say that something is
subjectively twice as hot. On what do you base it? Yesterday I was
mending my bike in the bright still sunshine with the heat reflecting up
at me from the concrete. I moved into the shade and I was subjectively
ten times more comfortable, so on that basis the temperature was a tenth
of what it had been in the sun.

Bill


I also think your criticism is spurious! What the comment is referring
to and what everyone with a sense of reason assumes, is that they are
referring to the normal range experienced by humans in this region.
If compared to the universe, then a journey from London to Edinburgh is
just a gnat's hop, but I don't think anyone would say it wasn't a long
journey. The word pedant comes to mind or perhaps you were just having
aerial withdrawal symptoms over the holiday ! ;-)

brightside S9 wrote:


The Times, science (and railways)! Wht did you expect?

The Times has a Saturday column called "The pedant". The columnist
explains the errors of his ill educated colleague journos. But
unfortrunately he only corrects their inappropriate use of the English
language. At least it is a start.



Don't you just hate it when that happens ! :-)

brightside S9 wrote:


The Times, science (and railways)! Wht did you expect?

The Times has a Saturday column called "The pedant". The columnist
explains the errors of his ill educated colleague journos. But
unfortrunately he only corrects their inappropriate use of the English
language. At least it is a start.



Don't you just hate it when that happens ! :-)

Skitt rules K.O.

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

In article ,
John Hall wrote:
In article ,
Bill Wright writes:
From today's Times:

Yesterday saw the mercury
top 27 degrees in parts of
London - double the average
temperature for April of 14C.

Bill

It's not just The Times. I've even heard BBC weather presenters, who are
supposed to be trained meteorologists employed by the Met Office, say
things like that.

I can't see the problem. Absolute zero means nothing as regards weather
temperatures. 0C, ie the freezing point of water, does.

--
*If we weren't meant to eat animals, why are they made of meat?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

I can't see the problem. Absolute zero means nothing as regards weather
temperatures. 0C, ie the freezing point of water, does.

But if you are going to say 'twice as hot' on the basis that the
difference between freezing point and the present temperature has
doubled, what will you say when the temperature drops below zero C?
"It's now as cold as it was hot last June"?

Bill

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
John Hall wrote:
In article ,
Bill Wright writes:
From today's Times:

Yesterday saw the mercury
top 27 degrees in parts of
London - double the average
temperature for April of 14C.

It's not just The Times. I've even heard BBC weather presenters, who are
supposed to be trained meteorologists employed by the Met Office, say
things like that.

I can't see the problem. Absolute zero means nothing as regards weather
temperatures. 0C, ie the freezing point of water, does.

You still can't say it's *twice* as hot, &c. All you can say is that it's
"hotter", "much hotter", "bloody hot". It's subjective.

--
Max Demian