# Lead sinkers **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [November 20, 2004, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-sinkers/275764 "2004-11-20T00:24:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wikkit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c0e974/32.png) [@Wikkit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wikkit)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2004, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-sinkers/275764/1 "2004-11-20T00:24:19Z")
[Do lead fishing sinkers threaten the environment?](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mfishsinkers.html) > [@](#): > > I never heard of anyone making their own sinkers; it sounds rather boring. My high school had lead sinker molds, used by students with a little electric lead melting pot. You got to play with molten metal, how could that not be fun? ---
**Author:** ![Ilsa\_Lund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a6a055/32.png) [@Ilsa\_Lund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ilsa_Lund)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2004, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-sinkers/275764/2 "2004-11-20T00:28:45Z")
I was lead sinker in a band one time… ---
**Author:** ![Wikkit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c0e974/32.png) [@Wikkit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wikkit)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2004, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-sinkers/275764/3 "2004-11-20T00:50:19Z")
Was it a heavy metal band? ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-sinkers/275764/4 "2004-11-22T07:37:32Z")
> [@Ilsa\_Lund](#): > > I was lead sinker in a band one time… Now _that’s_ plumbing the depths. ---
**Author:** ![Wikkit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c0e974/32.png) [@Wikkit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wikkit)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-sinkers/275764/5 "2004-11-22T19:54:08Z")
What a weighty thread. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2004, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-sinkers/275764/6 "2004-11-24T05:17:54Z")
> [@](#): > > The case of the loon is perhaps the most telling in North America Ain’t \*that \*the truth! ---
**Author:** ![henrygator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4da419/32.png) [@henrygator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/henrygator)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2004, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-sinkers/275764/7 "2004-11-26T00:50:15Z")
> [@Wikkit](#): > > [Do lead fishing sinkers threaten the environment?](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mfishsinkers.html)My high school had lead sinker molds, used by students with a little electric lead melting pot. You got to play with molten metal, how could that not be fun? Staff Member Una misuused metric to US conversion. A hectare is bigger than an acre. Una, I suggest you buy an HP 48, t he thinker’s PDA. About $100 street price. It does thesae conversions automatically ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2004, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-sinkers/275764/8 "2004-11-26T02:56:44Z")
> [@henrygator](#): > > Staff Member Una misuused metric to US conversion. A hectare is bigger than an acre. Una, I suggest you buy an HP 48, t he thinker’s PDA. About $100 street price. It does thesae conversions automatically henrygator, While I thank you for reading and commenting on the article, I must point out two things that you may be unaware of. First, on the subject of units conversions I am not very often wrong, and I actually do own an HP48S. And second, the error, which indeed there was one, was contained within the original source cited, and was **not** due to any calculation on my part. See here for slightly more elaboration: > **[A little conversion error](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=287686)** > > The article converts around 800,000 pellets per hectare to a little over 2 million per acre, where it would be the other way around, I think. A hectare is a little over twice the size of an acre. 🙂 Come see other science and weather facts at... While I did not catch the error that was contained within the government report, I’m not sure that I would have changed it had I caught it. I’m unsure of the convention for quoting a source where the source has a conversion error, other than using “sic”, which I thought was only supposed to refer to spelling and grammar errors. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2004, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lead-sinkers/275764/9 "2004-11-26T13:39:58Z")
> [@Una Persson](#): > > While I did not catch the error that was contained within the government report, I’m not sure that I would have changed it had I caught it. I’m unsure of the convention for quoting a source where the source has a conversion error, other than using “sic”, which I thought was only supposed to refer to spelling and grammar errors. As the famous philosopher, John W. Kennedy, once remarked (by a remarkable coincidence, it was on November 26, 2004), “Arithmetic is the spelling of science, and higher mathematics is its grammar.”