scs@lokkur.dexter.mi.us (Steve Simmons) (11/02/90)
Saw this lovely in November 1990 'Readers Digest', article "Dawn Of The Tiny Tech Age": " . . . in this world of nonotechnology (from the Greek nanos, or dwarf) . . ." Forgiveable? See my new .sig, below. -- " . . . within a nanometer (about a billionth of a yard) . . . " Reader's Digest, November 1990, pp. 31 [The prefix "nano-" does come from nanos meaning dwarf. R.D.'s identification of a meter with yard is a sad commentary on the scientific illiteracy of the American public... --JoSH]
johns@compsys.mu.edu (11/02/90)
- -" . . . within a nanometer (about a billionth of a yard) . . . " - Reader's Digest, November 1990, pp. 31 - -[... R.D.'s - identification of a meter with yard is a sad commentary on the - scientific illiteracy of the American public... - --JoSH] JoSH's identification of `meter' with `science' and his failure to comprehend the word `about' is a sad commentary on his scientific ignorance and illiteracy.
landman@eng.sun.com (Howard A. Landman) (11/06/90)
In article <Nov.1.20.17.50.1990.7980@athos.rutgers.edu> scs@lokkur.dexter.mi.us (Steve Simmons) writes: >" . . . within a nanometer (about a billionth of a yard) . . . " > Reader's Digest, November 1990, pp. 31 >[The prefix "nano-" does come from nanos meaning dwarf. R.D.'s > identification of a meter with yard is a sad commentary on the > scientific illiteracy of the American public... > --JoSH] Hmm? Within 10%, a nanometer *is* a billionth of a yard. At least he said "about". I once had some IC masks rejected by AMI because they were out of spec on CDs (critical dimensions). A line that was supposed to be 4 microns wide plus or minus a few percent was, they claimed, not within that tolerance. I had it measured again by the maskmaker: it was within spec. After elevating this several levels in the company, I finally had it explained to me: AMI used the "English micron". You know; that's how big a micron would be if there were exactly 2.5 cm in an inch instead of 2.54. Of course, in their contracts and documentation they just referred to this as "micron" to save ink. The 1.6% bias in scale was enough to throw some of the in-spec masks out-of-spec. Then there was Motorola's "mocron", but that's another story ... And these were people who made their *living* by microtechnology! -- Howard A. Landman landman@eng.sun.com -or- sun!landman [Perhaps I should elaborate: Obviously the R.D. editor knows what a nanometer (and a meter) is. The sad commentary is that he should feel the need to explain it, indicating that it isn't expected that the general reader knows what a meter is. --JoSH]