A book overstated data-center water use by 10,000 times.

A book overstated how much water data centers use by 10,000 times. Investor Gavin Baker said a woman who wrote the book made the error. Baker did not name the book or give the correct figure.

Baker said the author has admitted the mistake many times. The false figure keeps circulating anyway.

He compared it to what he called the Popeye effect, after Popeye the sailor who eats spinach to get strong. In an academic book, he said, a misplaced decimal point created the idea that spinach has more iron than other foods, when it does not. That claim then spread widely. Another speaker in the conversation said he had also believed it.