Re: Density of Water -- & the Density of Science

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

James Purchase said, in part:

> I can find all
> sorts of references
> which say that it gets close - really, really close, but
> the "closest" value
> I can find for pure water is 0.9999750 g @ 3.98C @ 1 atm
> pressure (sea
> level). One reference went so far to say that it "should"
> be 1 g, except for
> an early calibration innacuracy in the metric system.
> 
> I realise that I'm splitting hairs here - this level of
> precision isn't
> needed for our purposes, but its been driving me batty
> trying to tract down
> the truth.

Some may know better than others, but the closest one can
scientifically get to the truth on any particular point is
never better than 0.something.  There's always room for
adjustment, reassessment of lab equipment, accomodations in
theory, etc.  The secret is in the rounding (which should
be done to preserve sufficient accuracy for the purposes at
hand, whatever they might be) and in summing over numerous
examples (which tends to even out the "errors" and reduce
the "apparent" complexities.  ;-)

For that matter, why aren't the Hs on an H2O molecule
precisely 120 degrees apart?

Scott H.

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