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Thinking in Two Dimensions

Published by swansont on March 31, 2009 11:36 am under Antiscience, Journalism

A correction from an LA Times story editorial

Solar power: A Friday editorial said that according to the U.S. Energy Department, enough sunlight hits a “100-square-mile” portion of the Nevada desert to power the entire country. It should have said “100-miles-square.”

The commentary: On square miles

I’d argue that “square miles” and “square kilometers” really have no place in popular journalism, because we have little connection to what they mean.

As humans, we never travel a “square mile.” We travel a mile. Or ten miles. If we’re thinking about an area of land, we’re probably mentally walking along two of its edges — which is what the LA Times and the U.S. Department of Energy were doing.

What you mean “we?” While the statement may be true (for some people), I’d argue that it’s an issue of mathematical/scientific literacy. Eliminating the use of area is to lower the bar of what we expect of journalists and readers of journalism. I never travel a cubic meter, either, but use of volume has its place — we don’t need to describe a liter as 10 cm on a side. We’re used to volume measurement, even if we in the US have an overall aversion to metric except when applied to some beverage containers. Why aren’t we used to areas — is it the name? Would “acres” be better, to avoid the “square” business?

The proposed solution includes giving an example, though, and giving a reference for scale is a good idea.

1 Comment so far

  1. Uncle Al on March 31st, 2009

    Installed efficiency (amorphous, crystalline, chemical solar cells), real world efficency (solar cells puke DC current not AC voltage – gonna cost you big time for local inverters), temperature dependence (efficiency drops with temperature rise. Desert – duh), dust deposition, sun’s declination and right ascension, equipment failure… paths for the workers to walk. DESTRUCTION OF A FRAGILE AND ENDANGERED DRYLAND ECOLOGY! Whatever the Official estimate of generating area required, multiply by ten. That is a justifiable real world electricity generation estimate including realiability that only increases side length by a factor of three.

    What happens at night?

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