6 ms·
Then, the ejected debris that created the canyons likely soared over the lunar surface and then collided with it at speeds of about 2,237 miles per hour (3,600
by chr 2y ago
Then, the ejected debris that created the canyons likely soared over the lunar surface and then collided with it at speeds of about 2,237 miles per hour (3,600 kilometers per hour).
Oddly adding a veil of precision to an estimate of a kilometre per second.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- bena 2y agoYeah, they just did the conversion and slapped it on there. Should have said "about 2200 mph".
- JoshTriplett 2y agoIt's unfortunate that the only written mechanism we have for expressing a lack of precision is scientific notation, which tends to be obfuscating for numbers at this scale: if you write "3.6e3 kph (2.2e3 mph)", you make it clear approximately how much precision you do and don't have, but it's less obvious-at-a-glance for the target audience of an article like this.
- carlmr 2y agoOr use kps and not lose additional precision every time you translate units?
- kingds 2y ago2200 would improperly add an extra significant figure, "about 2000" would be okay.
- bena 2y agoI had figured since km/h was NN00, the same would be good for mph.
- olddustytrail 2y agoNaw, it's already been false precisioned to hell. The original would have been "about 1000 metres/second". That got translated to 3600 km/h etc. Check how much it charges if it was really 800 m/s. Or 1200 m/s.
- hansvm 2y agoThat's only a problem if your favorite method of representing uncertainty is in-band signalling via a technique like significant figures.
- justonceokay 2y agoYou could translate the units and then also translate separately the error bands (assuming +/- 100 km). But “2237 mi/hr +- 62 mph” sounds pretty silly.
- floatrock 2y agoUse the error bands to find a close-enough round number: 2200 or 2300 mph or "almost 3 times the speed of sound on earth" Anyone pedantic enough to notice the conversion mismatch should be smart enough to understand the concept of "error bars".
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- rzzzt 2y ago10 m/s = 36 km/h, I believe they started from a round number.
- robin_reala 2y agoUS people typically want numbers translated into American football fields it seems. So around 39,000 football fields an hour might be more obvious.
- dandelany 2y agoPlease be complete if you’re gonna translate to American units. That’s 117,000 football fields per football game, or 325 per commercial.
- smallmancontrov 2y agoDoes the hour include or exclude ad breaks?
- dmurray 2y agoThat's nothing! They determined that one valley formed 3.8 billion years ago, and the other one, 3.8 billion years plus or minus 10 minutes.
- hulitu 2y ago> That's nothing! They determined that one valley formed 3.8 billion years ago, and the other one, 3.8 billion years plus or minus 10 minutes. Now that's what i call precision. How did they measured it ? With a pendulum ? /s
- beAbU 2y agoIts because they started with "roughly 1km/s", which was deemed too difficult to understand for pleb readers, so it was converted to km/h, which is more relatable. Then it was converted to mph for the US audience, and the author just did a straight conversion without really considering the madness that is " about 2237 mph". I hate it when they do this. 1-2km/s, which is a reasonably accurate estimate for these things, should have been translated to "2000-4000mph" and it would have been perfectly good enough.