Physicist spots 99-year-old mistake in the Oxford English Dictionary

Dr Stephen Hughes, from the University of Technology in Brisbane, noticed that the error in the dictionary during research for an article for science teachers. The OED definition of the word erroneously states that atmospheric pressure makes siphons work, when in fact it is the force of gravity.

Siphons draw fluid from a higher location to a lower one and are often used to remove liquid from containers, such as petrol tanks, that are hard to empty otherwise. Dr Hughes said he was stunned when he realised that the dictionary had got the definition wrong.

"It is gravity that moves the fluid in a siphon, with the water in the longer downward arm pulling the water up the shorter arm," Dr Hughes said.

"We would all have an issue if the dictionary defined a koala as a species of bear, or a rose as a tulip," he said.

The error was introduced in 1911 and has gone unchallenged ever since.

As soon as he made his discovery, Dr Hughes quickly dispatched a letter to the OED's revision team, who responded saying that they would rectify the mistake in the next edition. Dr Hughes came across the error after he had visited an enormous siphon in South Australia, which transfers millions of gigalitres from a river system into a depleted lake.

"I thought this example would make a great education paper ... but in my background research I discovered there was much contention about the definition of the word 'siphon'," Dr Hughes said.

"I found that almost every dictionary contained the same misconception that atmospheric pressure, not gravity, pushed liquid through the tube of a siphon."

An OED spokesman said the definition was written in 1911 by "editors who were not scientists" and that Dr Hughes's notes would be taken into account when the entry was rewritten. Dr Hughes now plans to check dictionaries and encyclopedias in other languages which may have taken their definitions for the word from the OED. 


/Telegraph.co.uk/