Comments on: BAFact math: Give him an inch and he'll take a light year

By: GERALD W BETHMAN JR.

GERALD W BETHMAN JR. — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 18:10:26 +0000

IT WOULD TAKE 4 YEARS TO GET TO THE MOON.

By: enigma3535

enigma3535 — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 22:20:51 +0000

One inch to a light year = 5,879,808,000,000 miles
A light year = 5,878,625,371,567 miles [assuming that light travels at 186,282.397 mps]
Difference 1,182,628,433 [0.020%]

A billion miles here or there.

By: Joseph G

Joseph G — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 05:25:48 +0000

@ 51 bassmanpete: I think Nigel typed exactly what he meant, he’s using the British (ie correct) spelling.

Sigh. It’s so hard to be pedantic when you weren’t brought up with the King’s English.

@ 52 Nigel Depledge: Also, the double-space after periods is by no means universally held to be correct: there seems to be an ongoing argument between folks who learned to type at least 20 years ago (two spaces) and the typographers and modernists who claim that double-spacing is only acceptable when using monospace fonts. And the dangling participle rule is just plain stuffiness, as far as I’m concerned. Of course, I was just trying to be pedantic for comic effect, so I had to try and find as many nits to pick as possible.

By: KC

KC — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 22:00:59 +0000

@Alan – stop nitpicking – Phil stated that it is “about 92.8 million miles”. Its just a good way to visualize the distance – he’s not plotting the trajectory of a spacecraft with it!

By: Nigel Depledge

Nigel Depledge — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 08:36:02 +0000

@ Joseph G (50) & bassmanpete (51) -

Yeah, the -ise spelling is correct over here (but -ize is a permitted variant).

As to the dangling participle, I could hold up my hand and say “oh, you got me there,” but I shan’t. I intentionally used a dangling participle to emphasise the colloquial roots of the phrase I used. Yup, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Also, I usually double-space when starting a new sentence, and I thought I had after the exclamation mark. Maybe it didn’t show up very well?

By: bassmanpete

bassmanpete — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 08:00:15 +0000

Joseph @ 50

I think Nigel typed exactly what he meant, he’s using the British (ie correct) spelling.

By: Joseph G

Joseph G — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 07:42:49 +0000

@47 Nigel Depledge: Don’t apologise! Pedantry is what the internet is for.

Quite so. But I believe you meant to type: “Don’t apologize![double space]Pedantry is the purpose of the internet.”

By: Lola

Lola — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 22:21:05 +0000

Ow !

By: Nigel Depledge

Nigel Depledge — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 12:14:49 +0000

@ Neil Haggath (46) -
Ooh, you caught me out!

By: Nigel Depledge

Nigel Depledge — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 12:13:38 +0000

Matt B (33) said:

I’m sorry I seem to be commenting more about grammar than the actual topics lately. I think it comes from a general bad mood. I like the math here and I may even have the opportunity to use it at some point, just as I like the coincidence that the speed of sound is about one millionth of the speed of light.

Don’t apologise! Pedantry is what the internet is for.

Right?