| on snapple fact 473 |
[May. 2nd, 2005|08:02 pm]
matt
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"Antarctica has as much ice as the Atlantic Ocean has water"- Snapple "Real Fact" 473
Volume of ice in Antarctica: 30,109,800 km3. ( http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs133-99/gl_vol.html )
Volume of Atlantic Ocean: 324,600,000 km3. ( http://encarta.msn.com/related_761574942_8/average_depth_area_and_volume_(table).html )
Area of ice in Antarctica: 13,586,400 km2
Area of Atlantic ocean: 82,400,000 km2
Beware of bullshit. |
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| Comments: |
Are you counting the depth of the ice, or just the surface area? I'm curious.
-elf-
volume is cubic kilometers, which counts depth. Area is square kilometers, which ignores depth. Either way, it's a bullshit claim! (Deleted comment)
It's the converse, mostly, that bothers me- sometimes you pick up weird tidbits from oddball sources, and these filter into your subconscious, often uncritically. I try hard to have good justification when I talk about facts, so that casual listeners who might take what I say uncritically and repeat it are at "low risk".
Having actual useless but interesting tidbits on the underside of snapple caps is fun and might be the unconscius stimulant of something transformative. When lies are painted as facts, though, I feel that nothing good can come of this.
(When lies are well established and known by all to be lies, however, they might be of use. I am not judging the value of lies- merely the lost utility as painting them as facts, even if the words "true fact" are carefully quoted.) | |
