Pluto - it's all gone pear shaped
A fun email from Nigel on the subject of trusting blogs v trusting the mainstream media . I've edited his email a bit..
There has been significant reporting of as people make decisions on whether or not it is a planet (I can see Pluto being really upset by this). One account has been [put out by by a wire service]Their story contains the following line, "Pluto is automatically disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune's." You wonder if Pluto slows down for the corners of the oblong orbit, does it do a handbrake turn, or just maybe there are corner cushions located for it to bounce off. However [the wire service] has written this as oblong rather than elliptical. And so have many many newspapers and the like - I will bet my local paper will have this story in the print edition, probably with no editing at all.
Well Nigel is certainly right that a lot of places have also used the word oblong as a quick search of shows.
But the papers do have some wriggle room thanks to the definition of the word oblong.
Merriam Webster the dictionary of record in the US defines oblong as: ""deviating from a square, circular, or spherical form by elongation in one dimension" and the OED definition is similar though it does add "esp. rectangular with the adjacent sides unequal. "
Now I'll concede that my common sense view was that oblong meant rectangular but I guess this brings the "oblong orbit" back into the realms of the possible. As ever your thoughts, in comments, welcome.
UPDATE: Mrs V, herself Canadian, says that in North America an oblong is most generally an oval while over here a straw poll of the office returned "rectangle" so we may have an answer in two or three nations separated by a common language.
: : :
Email us
Facebook Group
Add to iTunes
Comments Post your comment