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-> Pluto has been around for about four billion years, and according to the best math, it should have lost about 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 grams of nitrogen
by remarkEon 11y ago
-> Pluto has been around for about four billion years, and according to the best math, it should have lost about 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 grams of nitrogen (give or take a zero) since then.
What is "the best math"? Is it better than "the good math"? I get the whole writing for pop-sci thing that's in vogue right now, but being cavalier with significant figures or being imprecise with language leads to a shallow understanding of the topic presented. Especially when writing about space, where it's already difficult to convey the scale of what's described.
- rev_bird 11y agoI'm not debating the whole "cavalier with significant figures or being imprecise with language" bit, but "the best math" seems to mean "the most likely guess given current information."
- jschwartzi 11y agoWhat is clear to me is that we don't have the best math. We only have the good math, and the journalists aren't sharing. Want better math? Contact Kelsi N. Singer and S. Alan Stern.