Writing letters to the editor is a task that requires thought, some passion and considerable effort. To justify that effort one should have a means of discovering whether there is a readership or not.

Rarely does one see comment regarding the subject of one's writings so, to measure the size of one's readership an occasional obvious error is included in the submission so that those who bother to read it can put pen to paper and show to all who read such scribble their superior knowledge.

My one critic took the bait again last week and gleefully wrote to the editor to make it known to all that I was in error again. Well, that's true the "C" scale should have been "F, obviously incorrect, but that drew the response I sought.

In response let me correct my critic's figures. The sun's core temperature is estimated to be 25,000 000 degrees Fahrenheit, not 14.000,000, and its corona in excess of 2,000,000 F.

Every day approximately 400,000,000,000,000,000,000,00 0 horse power pours out from the sun using hydrogen fuel at the rate of 4.5 million tons per second. The sun is 332,000 times the earth's mass and 300,000 times its volume. Only about five-ten billionths of that horse power reaches earth, some 92,950.000 miles distant.

Anyhow, one person's readership is always appreciated and any useful correction and comment welcomed.

The purpose of writing is to stimulate public awareness and reaction to those issues that have bearing on our lives today and on the lives of those who will inherit this planet.
Ken Hayward
          Mono