These cogent points do make a significant difference

Dear Editor,

I glanced at this Sunday’s Grade 6 Science Weekend Study. Here is what I saw:

“Lightning is really light energy and thunder is sound energy. Light travels at a speed of 300,000 metres (about 1/3 km) per second through the air.”

1.    The first sentence is not strictly correct. It would have been more accurate to say, “Lightning is an (atmospheric) electrical discharge (phenomenon), which is seen and heard by the light and thunder it generates.” But this would not have caused me to write you.

2.    300 000 metres is not 1/3 km; it is 300 km.

3.    SI units have no commas in English usage. A space is used instead. News-papers (and slack educators) here can’t be bothered with this, but it is no excuse for not doing the right thing in a science column intending to educate.

4.    The speed of light is not 300 000 metres per second. It is 300 000 000 metres per second, or 300 000 km per second.

I know you try, SN, but you sometimes publish bad figures. The last one I noticed was the claim in https://www.stabroeknews.com/2024/08/05/news/guyana/cheong-believes-hands-on-approach-will-benefit-guysuco/ by the new GuySuCo CEO: “so I know about production and production management. I am not coming in as some green dunks, as some people might think. When we planted, we used to get 120,000 tonnes per hectare”. You are not alone. It eluded the over 50 blog comments. Were you suddenly using the comma as a decimal point as in strict SI units? Otherwise, it raises the question of whether you (or the venerable new CEO) know the meanings of 120 000 tonnes and a hectare. It is the approximate amount of earth you would get by excavating the whole hectare to a depth of 2 tall men standing one on the other.

I am not raising a frivolous concern. Exploiters at every level get away with unconscionable profits because people are too busy surviving and jostling one another to study the true cause of their poverty.

Sincerely,

Alfred Bhulai

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