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> A cubic foot of Mars weighs, on average, 245 pounds, making it almost 30 percent less dense than Earth. I'm not usually a stickler for units, but in this con
by seiferteric 9y ago
> A cubic foot of Mars weighs, on average, 245 pounds, making it almost 30 percent less dense than Earth.
I'm not usually a stickler for units, but in this context I feel they should use better ones since it's very confusing to me. "weighs" 245 pounds... on mars? earth? then talking about density... clearly they should have used mass/volume (kg/m^3)
- greglindahl 9y ago"30% less dense" doesn't have units, so you shouldn't have been confused about that part.
- seiferteric 9y agoTrue, but talking about weight when other planets are involved without being specified is rather confusing.
- greglindahl 9y agoIn an article for the general public? I'm glad I'm not a science writer, I'd hate to have to deal with criticism like this.
- ebullientocelot 9y agoAgreed! Though I'm sympathetic to the writer trying to convey the point to a general audience, I don't think we (the generic HN person) are typical NYT readers.
- mirimir 9y agoIt's an odd comment, indeed. But it'd make no sense unless they mean weight on Earth. So yes, 3924.5 kg/m^3. And fundamentally, it's an average for the entire planet. So it's odd to say "cubic foot of Mars weighs, on average". Because there is no such average cubic foot. But I guess that "mean density is 3924.5 kg/m^3" (or even "245 pounds per cubic foot") would be too confusing for many readers.