Which part of 鈥減artial zero鈥 don鈥檛 we understand?
READER John Cleveland is puzzled. His new Subaru car proudly declares itself to be a 鈥淧artial Zero Emission Vehicle鈥 (PZEV). 鈥淣ot being a great mathematician,鈥 he writes, 鈥淚鈥檝e spent way too much time sussing out what quantity of greenhouse gases might be in a part of zero.鈥
He is not the only one who is confused. 鈥淲hat does Partial Zero Emission Vehicle mean?鈥 asks one post on the . Another comments: 鈥淭hat鈥檚 like being 鈥榓 little bit pregnant鈥.鈥
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Feedback wondered whether mathematics was the correct discipline within which to tackle this problem, and immediately suspected that we were in the presence of lawyers. And we were right. It turns out that a PZEV is defined precisely 鈥 in the lawyerly sense of that word 鈥 under , which have been adopted by several other US states. A PZEV is a vehicle that 鈥渕eets SULEV tailpipe emission standards, has a 15-year/150,000-mile warranty and has zero evaporative emissions鈥. SULEV, in turn, stands for a 鈥淪uper Ultra Low Emission Vehicle,鈥 which must be 鈥90 per cent cleaner than the average new model year vehicle鈥. And 鈥渃leaner鈥 is defined鈥 somewhere.
The practical upshot appears to be that manufacturers get for making cars that do not evaporate unburnt fuel, which would contribute to smog. This partially supports John鈥檚 conclusion that: 鈥淗owever the maths works out, we must have helped part of the whole environment.鈥
Feedback would have continued our research in an attempt to quantify that 鈥減art of鈥 and to work out what any of this has to do with greenhouse gases: but our invoice for overtime at of $1000 an hour has unaccountably been turned down.
Our barely surprising headline of the week comes from a press release from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden: 鈥淎dults with ADHD commit fewer crimes when on medication鈥
Millions of elephants may help us
ELEPHANTS continue to provide assistance to those who want to achieve a better understanding of exactly how big very big things are (Feedback, 6 July 2012). Lisa Giblin tells us about an article in the April edition of US magazine Mother Jones entitled 鈥淟ife of P鈥 and subtitled 鈥淲e鈥檙e running out of phosphorous 鈥 and that鈥檚 bad news for anyone who eats food.鈥
鈥淭he Environmental Protection Agency,鈥 the magazine reports, 鈥渆stimates that central Florida already houses nearly 1 billion metric tons of phosphogypsum [a radioactive waste product of the phosphate fertiliser industry], and 32 million metric tons are added each year 鈥 the equivalent of the 鈥榗ombined weight of approximately 6.4 million elephants鈥, as an EPA document helpfully notes.鈥
鈥淗elpful indeed!鈥 comments Lisa. 鈥淲hen measured in elephants, I can truly picture the size of the problem.鈥
A category error in sleep disturbance
CALLOUS quote of the week comes from the UK鈥檚 Civil Aviation Authority, 鈥淧roposed methodology for estimating the cost of sleep disturbance from aircraft noise鈥. The report states that 鈥渢he science is not robust enough to monetise the cognitive impairment in children at this time鈥.
Surely they are taking the name 鈥渟cience鈥 in vain here. Should that not be 鈥渢he philosophy is not robust enough to decide whether cognitive impairment in children has a monetary value鈥?
Real excitement in cake decoration
READER Sarah Longrigg was interested to come across hyper-dimensional cake decorators in the .
A page on Daisy Plunger Cutters in the Cake Decoration section of the online catalogue asserts that we can 鈥渃reate stunning sugarcraft flowers and daisies in minutes with these sugar paste cutters鈥.
鈥淲hy buy?鈥 the page asks, rhetorically, and gives its answers, such as the product being 鈥渟afe for children to use鈥. It gives the cutters鈥 measurements, which are given as 鈥4 脳 1.5 脳 2 脳 3 脳 3.5cm.鈥 So they are 5-dimensional, which is quite unusual, and may provide extra-dimensional crannies in which children can get irretrievably lost.
鈥淓IGHTY-THREE per cent of Europeans believe food contains chemicals,鈥 according to an article on that summarised the results of a Eurobarometer survey commissioned by the EU last autumn. 鈥淲hat do the other 17 per cent think food is made of?鈥 asks Philip Crichton.
鈥淲HO would have thought that?鈥 was Galen Ives鈥檚 reaction to the label on the lamb hotpot he bought from a Cross Country Trains buffet bar. It warned: 鈥淐aution: Once heated the contents will be hot.鈥
FINALLY, the delightful gift that Laurie Mansfield received from her son last Christmas had one slight drawback. When she tried to sign up for the gift 鈥 a voucher for the Wine Gang鈥檚 monthly tasting report at 鈥 she was informed that an 鈥渆rror occurred鈥 and that 鈥渨e were unable to proceed with the sign-up confirmation for the following reason(s): this voucher expired on December 13 1901 at 21:45.52 British time鈥.