University of Queensland academic Stephen Hughes found that entries for the word 'siphon' incorrectly said atmospheric pressure is the force that allows the device to move liquids from one place to another, having first spotted the error in the Oxford English Dictionary last year.
"It is gravity that moves the fluid in a siphon, with the water in the longer arm pulling the water up the shorter arm," he said.
"An extensive check of online and offline dictionaries did not reveal a single dictionary that correctly referred to gravity being the operative force in a siphon," he added.
He said a spokeswoman for the Oxford English Dictionary had told him he was the first person to question said definition, which dated from 1911 and had been written by non-scientists. She said his views would be taken into account as they updated the entire reference book, (which, according to their website, is now up to letter R).
A siphon is a tube -- often u- or v-shaped -- that is used to move liquids from one container to another. It is commonly used to drain fish tanks or petrol tanks.
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Discussion:
At times I'd be reading over some entries in the dictionary and pondered about the text's accuracy... I mean, have you ever wondered whether there'd be errors, and how many could there be, in a reference text of such magnitude? (And the idea that they could've remained unnoticed for so long o.o)
Even with constant revisions through the years, there's still room for human error... (Especially when it comes to scientific misconceptions).
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(Entonces, donde queda Wikipedia? ¬_¬)
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