cd33645d   
   XPost: rec.arts.sf.written   
   From: throopw@sheol.org   
      
   : Bill Patterson    
   : While I don't disagree with anything you say, I will observe that I   
   : happened to be watching the E=MC2 thing on PBS last night, and the   
   : explanation they gave when talking about acceleration toward C was   
   : -"the energy of acceleration becomes mass."-   
      
   And a remarkably poor explanation it is, too.   
   PBS should be ashamed, on at least two counts, "energy of acceleration"   
   being complete gibberish, and "becomes mass" being at best misleading.   
      
   Of course, that doesn't stop it, and similar explanations, from   
   being staples of pop relativity.  But it is indeed a pity.   
   And in a context of precocious students talking to allegedly   
   competent teachers/tutors, it'd be really quite ghastly-bad.   
   Which wouldn't stop it from being real-world plausibe,   
   but still, ghastly-bad.   
      
   I suspect the two worst-popularized topics in all of sciencedom are   
   evolution, and relativity.  Followedby quantum mechanics, but those are   
   notably in the lead, IMO.   
      
      
       "He was the greatest to be raised up against me   
        in all the ages I can remember.  It is indeed a pity."   
      
               --- Yama Dharma, speaking of Rild, in Lord of Light   
      
      
   Wayne Throop   throopw@sheol.org   http://sheol.org/throopw   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)