If You Take a Mouse to School...

...he will demonstrate great spelling abilities but write down mathematical nonsense:

(image captured from google books where it was displayed curtesy of HarperCollinsPublishing)

We've been reading this book at home for years - If You Take a Mouse to School by Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond.  Great little story for kids - but check out this page.  The spelling is all legit, but difficult words.  But the math - oh my!  It's mostly gibberish. Why? Why not use high-level calculus, which would probably look equally confusing to the average person but would actually be legit?

And lest you think this is an isolated occurrence - check out this puzzle featuring a Wubbzy, a Nick Jr. character:

Apparently, a strong grasp of mathematical nonsense is central to an academic environment.

Element or Chemical, Atomic Mass or Number

Recently, NPR ran a story on the finding of possibly high levels of antimony in a certain toy.  I did not hear the original piece, but I did hear NPR reading from a listener's letter complaining about NPR's confusing the subtle distinction between "a chemical" and "a chemical element."

So, in the midst of apologizing for calling antimony a 'chemical', the host says that he "sees antimony right there on the periodic table between tin and tellurium, with an atomic mass of 51)"

While retracting on something that probably wasn't wrong in the first place, they make a definite blunder and confuse atomic mass with atomic number.  That's like confusing the number of men at a party with the number of people at a party!  Atomic mass counts protons and neutrons and the average number for antimony is 122.  51 is the atomic number and merely the number of protons.

The Reason for the Season

Someone forwarded me a nice Boston Globe Editorial about the winter solstice and how it's the real reason for the season and all that.  Right off the bat, though, while correcting one misconception about the seasons, they insert the following: "...the earth, in its elliptical revolution, only adjusts the tilt in its rotation..." (emphasis mine)

True 'tis the axial tilt that causes the seasons, but there is no "adjusting."  The Earth keeps its orientation while orbiting the Sun - so the North Pole is leaning inward sometimes and outwards at other times.  Saying the tilt is adjusting is like saying I've gotten younger just because someone older than me has walked into the room!