E=MC³ Just Sounds Better

A study of the dozen most-used science textbooks in use at U.S. middle schools finds they are so riddled with errors that none of them are acceptable. The books are used by about 85 percent of the U.S. school population. “These are terrible books, and they’re probably a strong component of why we do so poorly in science,” says North Carolina State University physics professor John Hubisz, who led the two year survey. The errors, which took 500 pages to enumerate, include a map showing the equator passing though the U.S., impossible diagrams of what prisms do to light, and a photo of singer Linda Ronstadt labeled as a silicon crystal. “These are basic errors,” says Hubisz, who is also the president of the American Association of Physics Teachers. “It’s stuff that anyone who had taken a science class would be able to catch.” (AP) ...Unless, of course, they used one of those books in that class.