[Guest post] Heat Index

Man, it's hot out!

Previously in this space I've opined that Americans are generally illiterate when it comes to matters of science and nature. Special interests, both left and right, love to take advantage of this mass ignorance, warping objective theory and evidence to fit their own agendas. They hope to stamp the imprimatur of science on their self-serving goals in hopes we'll go along with them. Whether it be intelligent design (or social darwinism), climate change panic (or climate change denial), or any other outrageous distortion of science or nature, the solution to the outrage is simple: be uncomfortable with your own ignorance, be willing to work hard in seeking the truth, and be suspicious of easy, pat answers.

My experience has been that few scientific facts are obvious. They don't fall like rain equally and effortlessly onto all. Reaping the fruits of science is more like harvesting a finicky crop during a drought. Science requires work, thought, consideration, and above all a stubborn adherence to the scientific method when a flood of convenient conclusions and pat answers threaten to wash it all away.

For example, Heat Index. As we experience a record heat wave, I'm annoyed at how in these conditions the media loves to talk about the Heat Index. Today it will be 103°, but it will feel like 115°. What complete and utter nonsense! For over three hundred years scientists have been refining the concept and measurement of Temperature -- a physical property of matter that quantitatively expresses the common notions of hot and cold. Temperature is the scientific fact; how hot you feel expresses your fuzzy "belief" with respect to that fact. I feel hot when it's 70°; my wife feels cold. So what. It's an abomination to spin the rigorous concept of temperature in an attempt to accommodate the touchy-feely aspect of how hot we might "feel" at any given time. Brilliant men like Rømer, Fahrenheit, Celsius, and Kelvin dedicated their lives to making the "feeling" of hot and cold into testable scientific theory. And we just throw that all away?

It's a funny irony that Heat Index has an objective definition. Check it out:

Does that capture your subjective sense of how hot it is? Me neither. Besides, there's no way that Heat Index is ever used objectively to help me know what I should be feeling. Let me put it this way. Suppose we listen to a typical weather report on the five-o-clock news. The weather guy says that tomorrow the temperature will be something, say 93°. Now, let's you and me make a bet on what the Heat Index will be.

Ready to bet?

Me, I'll take the over any day, any time. Why? Because the weather weenie only ever mentions the heat index when it's higher than the temperature. Evening news weather forecasts aren't trying to convey useful facts; they are trying to entertain and thrill you with a scientific sounding hyped up view of a natural world that you are too frightened to go out and experience directly. They assume they can exploit your ignorance of science and nature in order to keep you indoors watching TV and thereby sell you soap. And in large measure they are successful in doing exactly this.

Posted at 12:19 by Nadz   [/guest/nadz]   Comments | Perm Link |
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