Mon, 17 Mar 2003

All the News That's Fit to Print

This is where depending on the popular media for scientific and/or engineering knowledge will get you. All the News That's Fit to Print .... indeed.

[from Enchanted Learning via InstaPundit]

In 1919, Goddard wrote a scientific article, "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes," describing a high-altitude rocket; this ground-breaking article was published in a Smithsonian report. Misunderstanding the article completely, the New York Times newspaper ridiculed Goddard in a Jan. 13, 1920, editorial, stating that space travel was impossible, and that Goddard "seems to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools." They stated that rocket thrust would not work in a vacuum, apparently believing that Newton's Third Law (that every force has an equal and opposite reaction) was not valid in space. The NY Times did not print a retraction until 3 days before men landed on the moon (p. 43, July 17, 1969).

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