Let's Get Dense, Dummies

Relative density of oil. gas, and water

There are times when freelancers at internet content farms are so disconnected from reality that it's embarrassingly obvious that they know nothing of their chosen topic. Here at the Antisocial Network, we've noticed that a preponderance of these "know-nothing-but-write-anyway" types seem to have college degrees, but they're often in liberal arts or occasionally business. Whether they're incompetent in the fields in which they're trained, we don't know; we just know that they often get lost when they run into science, industry, or technology. Take for instance, a holder of a business degree, Alexis Writing: Alexis tackled the question, "What are the Relative Densities of Gas, Oil and Water?" for eHow.com (later moved to Sciencing.com by Leaf Group and ultimately deleted¹), and – since she skipped all those "hard" science classes to get a BA – she found herself woefully unqualified to answer the question... which didn't stop her.

The question is remarkably easy to answer, which, unfortunately, doesn't fit the eHow model of 300 to 500 words per "answer." For the sake of clarity, the relative densities of gas, oil and water can be summed up as follows:

water is denser than oil oil is denser than gas or, in other words, oil floats on water and gas "floats" on oil or water. Duh: answered in about 20 words. You don't need all 500 of the words Alexis used for this crapalicious post; which she padded by including the densities of about forty different liquids, gases and gasp! solids! Which prompted us to ask, what do the densities of nickel and nylon have to do with the question? That's not to mention that Alexis, because she's a numbingly scientifically illiterate dumbass, merely cribbed from a table she found somewhere, in the process claiming that the "compound of hydrogen" known as "hydrochloric acid" is a gas... the dumbass. Then again, there's her assertion that the (crude) oil from Texas, California or Mexico are monolithic within their "homelands" and yet different; or that she somehow thinks gasoline is the same thing as oil.

We started this blog in hopes of exposing fake knowledge like this masquerading as "answers" on the internet. It looks as though we have our work cut out for us, as long as scientific illiterates like Alexis Writing (whatever her real name is) broadcast their dumbassery around the web. Just giving her a second Dumbass of the Day award (within a week!) isn't going to make any difference, but it does make us feel just a teeny bit better.

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/info_8643555_relative-densities-gas-oil-water.html

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