Yet again, we visit sloppiness in the use of our language. On the news yesterday (15 March 2011), I heard the term light-year used incorrectly. You, my good readers, likely have heard the same sort of thing. Someone will claim that widget X is light-years ahead of widget Y in development or style or whatever other desirable quality is being discussed.
This, of course, is wrong. A light-year is always and only the distance that light travels in a vacuum in one year. That’s about six trillion miles. Light-year is not a unit of measuring time, nor does it indicate a level of advancement. If you cannot measure the characteristic in question with inches, you cannot use light-years to measure it.
It’s language, Jim, but not as we know it. . . .
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