Is Google Going Underground with Hypersonic Tech?
spectrum.ieee.org
spectrum.ieee.org
When did it become acceptable to write nonsense like that? How can something be five times less expensive? What is wrong with saying "one fifth the price?"
It's not just this author, I see this in print media everywhere.
To me, 5 times cheaper implies the starting point is not price of the thing being compared to. "5 times cheaper" sounds like it could be 80% of the price of normal methods.
Method A: $1005 Method B: $1000 Method C: $975
Method C seems to be 5 times cheaper than Method B.
Is there some phrase in stats used to describe this nonsense?
Method C provides 5x greater savings on the cost when compared to Method B. It does not mean that the actual cost is 5x less.
Yes, the language "five times cheaper" is imprecise, but common sense says they probably mean the simple interpretation.
In fact, because they aren't speaking precisely, it isn't reasonable to apply some kind of super technical methodology to interpret what they're saying.
https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/renewables/diggi...
It is basically using ramjet technology (such as in the Lockheed D-21), but it's kind of the inlet shape which moves through air enriched with combustible at hyper-sonic speed, on impact the projectile just vaporizes.
edit: the gif animation at the top of the article is very misleading
The last thing we need are swarms of vehicles filling our skies.
What I'd hope is that it would bring down the cost of ground source heat pumps.
But they'll work as great as Google's automatic translation, so there's nothing to worry about!
That sounds quite exciting!
It's a pet peeve of mine that everyone seemed to think it was a good idea to call ground-source heat pumps "geothermal." Of course it would lead to confusion. shakes fist angrily at sky :)
The geothermal energy thing is the main subject of the article, but for whatever unknowable reason, the author of the article mentioned the heat pump thing as context.
Betteridge's law of headlines is one name for an adage that states: "Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no."