Gravity and Barometric Pressure for Dummies

Aneroid barometer

The great guitarist Mark Knopfler (what: you've never heard of Dire Straits?) once wrote the lyric, "Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug." Internet freelancers seem to be pretty much the same: sometimes you have to read past the obfuscation to see that they're full of bullshit, sometimes the bullshit is right there in your face. We recently ran across a perfect example of the second kind of freelancer. She calls herself Brooke Ashley, and writes at eHow.com (them again!). Her tour de force for today is titled "What Is the Meaning of Barometric Pressure?"¹ We kid you not: it took our researcher fewer than ten words to spot her incompetence:

"The pull of the air on Earth’s gravitational field is known as barometric pressure. Also known as atmospheric pressure, barometric pressure was discovered in the 17th century. A barometer is a scientific instrument used to gauge pressure. Barometric pressure is used in meteorology, health and changes in altitude." Ri-i-i-i-ight, Brooke! Here's a hint: when you reworded that definition of "barometric pressure" you found online somewhere, you should not have changed the order of the words without reading it to see if maybe you screwed up. But you did screw up: to use your words correctly, "the pull of the Earth's gravitational field on the air in the atmosphere is called barometric pressure." Even USA Today gets that right! The air doesn't "pull... on the Earth's gravitation field," dummy. We guess this is what you get when you try to use a creative writing degree on science: a Dumbass of the Day award!

¹ The original has been deleted by Leaf Group, but can still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was    ehow.com/facts_7174254_meaning-barometric-pressure_.html

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