On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 3:34 PM, John Duncan Yoyo <[email protected]> wrote:
> Having worked in laboratories all my life I can tell you calibration is a > big issue. I immediately thought of a calibration problem when I saw that very improbable reading on the thermometer the reporter was using. I dunno why she didn't think of that as well, but then again, she was out in the field and maybe, just maybe, she thought that reading was correct. Someone at the TV station, at least the weather person, surely must have realized that something was probably wrong. After all, that reading was 16 degrees off from what the TV station was displaying on-screen, adjacent to their logo, as being the current temperature. That apparent inaccurate reading did, however, conform to the hyperventilating she was engaged in at the moment. She had just finished interviewing a motorist, trying her best to elicit admissions from him that he was facing a terribly challenging task on the roadways given all the snow. But he was not going along, insisting instead that even his Mustang, hardly a snow car, would have no problems getting him home in a reasonable amount of time, and that the roads looked pretty good to him. And with that, she whips out the digital thermometer and gets the 16 degree reading and accompanies that with exclamations about the perils of ice. Final tally for the TV viewers? She wins the argument and the poor guy might die trying to get home. Go figure. Steve ************************************************************************* ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *************************************************************************
