Re: How far does an object fall during the first half second after it's released?
From: tadchem (tadchemNOSPAM_at_comcast.net)
Date: 07/05/04
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Date: Mon, 5 Jul 2004 10:09:32 -0400
"Gene Nygaard" <gnygaard@nccray.com> wrote in message
news:0rbhe019puo36vodr5hij6p4b2it8uossc@4ax.com...
*flush*
> There is no cause for the confusion, other than a very silly choice by
> physicists using the English language for a jargon word for the force
> due to gravity.
Naive, possibly, but 'silly', hardly. The extent of 'silliness' in physics
is limited to such things as selecting names for novel concepts that will
prevent confusion with previously established concepts. The names of the
quark properties (charm, strangeness) and as-yet-undiscovered elements (such
as 'Unununium') come to mind.
The human imagination far outpaces any single language's (or individual's)
vocabulary in rate of growth, so we are left with no alternative but to
'recycle' the words we know in different contexts, with context-specific
definitions. The word 'mercurial', for example, holds distinct meanings in
chemistry, astronomy, and psychology. The word 'set' has (according to at
least one authority) 464 different definitions.
> This is a language specific problem, shared by
> English with some other languages such as French, but not by other
> languages such as Norwegian.
The only languages I know of that do not apply words differently in
different contexts are all dead: Sumerian, Vinca, Mayan, you get the idea.
That is because the new contexts have arisen since people stopped using the
languages.
I believe you are misunderstanding your 'other languages such as Norwegian.'
No language in which 'There is no cause for the confusion' is capable of
supporting the favorite form of humor among growing intellects - the pun.
> We who use the word "weight" in its normal meaning in commerce own
> this word.
*NOBODY* 'owns' a word. Even Bill Gates can't own the word 'windows'
(unless he is willing to take responsibility for washing mine!)
> We have a prior claim to it by hundreds of years over the
> physicists who recently borrowed it and often use it with another
> meaning.
Can you possibly become any more arrogant? If 'prior claim' meant anything,
we should
all be blue-green algae.
> We use it consistently with the same meaning; there is no
> real imprecision in that usage--even if some people such as yourself
> are too dumb to understand that, and even if many other people simply
> don't care about the precise meaning or how it might differ from other
> usage of the same words.
The lack of imprecision you claim for the commercial use of 'weight'
notwithstanding, you are painting yourself into a corner here: on one hand
you say 'We use it consistently with the same meaning' and later *in the
same sentence* you say 'many other people simply don't care about the
precise meaning or how it might differ from other usage of the same words'.
Either you are in a small group of linguistic perfectionists (a doomed
species, I might add), or you have no qualms about contradicting yourself
(in which case you have a career opportunity in republican politics).
You bore me, Gene.
*plonk*
Tom Davidson
Richmond, VA
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