[TheForge] OT - Innumeracy and a falling satellite

[Jerry Frost]

Oh come on Bruce.

I wish articles were written by people who owned and used dictionaries. 
Seriously, these are the same people who refer to anything "Big" as 
"MASSIVE." When was the last time you heard a talking head pronounce 
"nuclear" correctly? Let alone know the difference between an atomic device 
and a nuclear device?

I'm with ya, I just don't have much hope.
Jer
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bruce Freeman" <freemab222 at gmail.com>
To: "Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wednesday, September 21, 2011 3:45 PM
Subject: [TheForge] OT - Innumeracy and a falling satellite


> So they're telling us that that satellite that's falling to earth has
> only a 1/3200 chance of hitting a person.
>
> But what does that mean?  Is that the chance of hitting ANY  person or
> the chance of hitting any particular person?
>
> There's quite a difference.  Google tells me that there ar now about
> 6.75 billion people on earth, so if the latter interpretation is
> correct, we can expect 211 million people to be hit by space debris
> sometime this week.
>
> It sure would be nice if these news articles were written by folks who
> were not innumerate.
>
> -- 
> Bruce
> NJ
>