Oxford English Dictionary error caught after 99 years

The Oxford English Dictionary got it wrong and no one noticed until Australian physicist Stephen Hughes spotted the error after nearly a century.


Since 1911 the Oxford English Dictionary has been saying siphons work because of atmospheric pressure.

Wrong.

"It is gravity that moves the fluid in a siphon," said Stephen Hughes, a physics lecturer at the University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia.

Siphons work by drawing fluids from a higher location to a lower one, not always an easy thing to do -- just ask anyone who's tried to empty a car's gas tank.

But then, folks at the Oxford English Dictionary probably weren’t accustomed to emptying gas tanks. However, they should have been aware of what Sir. Isaac Newton discovered when an apple fell on his head - gravitiy.

How could a siphon possibly work by a difference in pressure when atmospheric pressure is the same for the liquid at both ends of the tube?

Finding this 99-year-old schoolboy error in the prestigious Oxford English Dictionary will likely be talked about for the next 99 years.

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