Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Metric fail

When math zombies attack, courtesy of Fox:

The tests were conducted at 40 miles per hour (17 kilometers per liter), representing a severe crash.

You can see where the poor rimster is going with the idea:

Sales of small cars soared when gas prices topped $4 per gallon ($1.05 per liter) last year. ... The small cars are affordable — prices of the three cars tested range from about $12,000 to $18,000 — and typically achieve 30 miles per gallon (13 kilometers per liter) or more.

... but a little bit of RTFS never hurt anyone, did it?

[UPDATE: As of this writing, the story has been promoted to centerpiece on the Fox opening page, with the hed "NOT SO SMART?" -- a reminder that real Americans want SUVs after all. But it remains an indicator of the complexity of news practice that Fox is editing AP copy to include metric equivalents. Isn't the metric system what they use in -- like, socialist Europe?]

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Of course, in metric countries, fuel consumption is measured in liters per 100 km.

10:19 PM, April 23, 2009  

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