Don’t Trust Newspapers. (Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone out of reach!)

Sunday, June 14, 2009

If I had a dollar for every blatantly wrong calculation written into newspaper articles, I’d have … a lot of dollars.

Dear old CNN in an article today ( http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/06/10/weather.dangerous.storms/index.html ) tells us that “The height of these storms also can tower to more than 10 miles in the air. Even if you stacked hundreds of the world's tallest skyscrapers on top of each other, they still wouldn't reach the tops of the biggest thunderstorms of the ITCZ (Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone).”

That sounded odd to me, given the number of times I see Toronto’s CN Tower wreathed in cloud.

I know that there are 5,280 feet in a mile, so that in 10 miles we have 52,800 feet.

How many feet in a skyscraper? (“Count the number of bodies and multiply by two”).

I needed to know the height of a typically tall skyscraper.

http://www.skyscraper.org/TALLEST_TOWERS/tallest.htm has a lovely graphic image, with figures.

As does http://architecture.about.com/library/bltall.htm .

The biggest of the big seem to be in Asia, and they tower above the tallest in the United States - Sears Tower, Chicago at 1,450 feet.

The tallest skyscraper in Canada is said to be BCE Place-Canada Trust Tower, Toronto, at 856 feet, roughly half the height of Sears Tower.

I’m going to take 1,500 feet as a typical height for today’s “tallest skyscrapers“.

Dividing that 1,500 feet into a thunderstorm’s 52,800 yields about 35.

Can that be right? Yes. 1,500 feet is about one-third of a mile, so 3 skyscrapers make a mile. Ten miles, 30 skyscrapers.

Even using ever-so-humble Canada’s skyscrapers we still need only 70 of them. And “hundreds” implies at least 200.

CNN is out, easily, by a factor of 3 or it could be argued, out by a factor of 6 or more.

Where does CNN come up with figures that justify statements such as “if you stacked hundreds of the world's tallest skyscrapers on top of each other”?

And where was the editor?

The message is clear:

Don’t trust newspapers, on-line or off-line, without you first verify their facts against your own sources.

Postscript: Monday, June 15, 2009

Today’s Toronto Star ( http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/650797 ) carries a story about a tower to space.

"… build 150-meter sections of the tower on the ground … you make 100 of these components and stack them on top of each other, until you achieve a 20-kilometer tower."

Hmmm. I get 15 kilometers, and that is assuming no overlap where the sections join. Still, it’s better than “hundreds of the world’s largest skyscrapers”.

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