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> Samsung's latest solid-state battery technology will power up premium EVs first, giving them up to 621 miles of range. Whenever I see text like this, my opin
by dotancohen 2y ago
> Samsung's latest solid-state battery technology will power up premium EVs first, giving them up to 621 miles of range.
Whenever I see text like this, my opinion of the editors, and thus the entire publication, immediately plummets. Did they think that 1000 KM was an accurate figure to be converted literally to three significant digits? Do they even understand the field that they are covering? Was it a machine conversion? What else should I not trust in their publication?
- unglaublich 2y agoWhat's the alternative? Taking the liberty to round it up or down? Both could lead them to trouble. The best would be to mention the stated number with conversion in parenthesis.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- acdha 2y agoI think the latter: 1,000km (621mi) makes it immediately understandable that it’s not 3 digits of precision.
- p51-remorse 2y ago“1,000km (about 600-700 miles)” would feel better.
- Daneel_ 2y ago“Several hundred miles” perhaps?
- p51-remorse 2y agoNah, that brings the 200-400mi range to my mind, far outside of the 750-1250km range that I intuit is implied by single-significant-digit “1000km” in this context.
- spicybbq 2y agoThis is worse because it implies "up to 700 miles" of range, which is not supported by the source.
- DennisP 2y agoStandard procedure in physics is to round to the closest number with the same number of significant digits. In this case, rounding down to 600, so people have a sense of how approximate the number is.
- mppm 2y agoThis is your main complaint about this totally uninformative vaporware "announcement"?
- GeoAtreides 2y agowhy are you saying is vaporware? From the article: "We supplied samples to customers from the end of last year to the beginning of this year and are receiving positive feedback,"
- mppm 2y ago[dead]
- itsoktocry 2y ago>Do they even understand the field that they are covering? They are doing a programmatic conversion of 1000km to miles, because most Americans don't have a clue about the metric system. What's the problem? >What else should I not trust in their publication? I'd love to hear about what you think is "untrustworthy" about converting from kilometres to miles so the audience can visualize the distance. 1000 km = 621 miles, this is a fact.
- kccqzy 2y agoThe problem is that the editor (and you probably) didn't understand the idea of significant figures.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- jakewins 2y agoRespectfully the argument you’re responding to is clearly just saying: the level of outrage feigned here over translating the mileage specs and not rounding is out of proportion. Continuing the thread with rude pedantry is not adding anything useful to the conversation.
- Larrikin 2y agoI think you don't understand significant figures if you think they matter in a press announcement.
- jameshart 2y agoThere is a huge difference between the claim of ‘this battery technology will allow a range of up to about 600 miles’ and ‘this battery technology will allow a range of up to 621 miles’ The former invites you to imagine that the actual Mileage will vary depending on other factors in the car design. The latter suggests some inherent theoretical limit caused by this technology that makes 621 miles into an absolute best case range. Which of these two do you think the original author of the claim was trying to communicate?
- solardev 2y agoI'd be less concerned about sig figs and more about real-world battery chemistry, load limits, charging times, risk of fire, etc. Even if they rounded it to 600 mi, that's still huge. It's less about the precision, since batteries are inherently imprecise, and more about whether this can live up to the marketing...
- xhkkffbf 2y agoI would rather have a battery pack that's half the size and half the price because 300 miles is enough for most of my work. Really I would be fine with 100 miles in about 45-50 weeks/year.
- solardev 2y agoI haven't looked in a while, but I think there are already several with ~200 mi of range (Leaf, Kona, etc.) and a few with ~300 (Equinox, Ioniq, etc.). Are those not enough? They don't really seem that much more expensive than comparable gas cars, either.
- DennisP 2y agoPlenty of people do want longer range though. Also, trucks could use longer range, and aviation definitely needs longer-range batteries.
- yegle 2y agoHa that reminds me of the COVID social distance rule of 2 meters. That translated to 6ft in US.
- m348e912 2y agoI think it was the other way around. Officials at the CDC determined that 6ft would be a good guideline for social distancing and it translated to 2m for countries that more widely used the metric system. Dr Fauci talks about this point at the 1:50 mark https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EETzkOjpyg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EETzkOjpyg
- cperciva 2y agoIn Canada it was translated into "one hockey stick".
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- kevinventullo 2y agoDo EV range estimates ever have three significant figures? My understanding is that true range depends heavily on things like external temperature, what speed one is driving, whether it’s stop-and-go, the ground one is driving on, …
- robotnikman 2y ago621 is the E number for Monosodium glutamate, I wonder if they wanted to make a reference to that.