Language Overflow

CowperKettle

09:21

> Until now, scientists had struggled to understand how to determine a galaxy's shape but now they think they have cracked the code.

Can we use have struggled here?

M.A.R.

10:47

@Jasper Yeah, probably just trolling

userr2684291

11:29

@CowperKettle Theoretically yes, but not really, because the past perfect suggests a change; the present perfect says nothing of the sort – and this wouldn't be news if it were used (I assume this is from a news site of some sort).

Another likely alternative would be a past simple.

userr2684291

12:00

The second part of the sentence further emphasizes the change: they're not struggling as much anymore.

Jasper

13:19

@CowperKettle Is the monument really for that purpose, or is the quote just a joke?

@userr2684291 Why aren't you enjoying your vacation? Nothing fun to do, or too much work?

CowperKettle

Monument to the laboratory mouse

The monument to the laboratory mouse is a sculpture in the city of Novosibirsk in Siberia, Russia. It is located in a park in front of the Institute of Cytology and Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and was completed on July 1, 2013, coinciding with the 120th anniversary of the founding of the city. According to Nikolai Kolchanov, the director of the institute, the monument commemorates the sacrifice of the mice in genetic research used to understand biological and physiological mechanisms for developing new drugs and curing of diseases. == Description == The monument consists of an...

userr2684291

13:35

Oh, I just realized the li'l rodent is knitting a double helix.

@Jasper It doesn't feel like vacation, and I doubt I'll ever have a real vacation. There's always something to do, to worry about.

It's sad that in the end it's all for nothing, though.

Jasper

@userr2684291 Just make it as glorious as you can. You know, I feel that my life is all for nothing right now, all of my life up to now, but I am trying to change that...

userr2684291

At the very end it'll all be for nothing, I mean; all that work, having fun, and other unimportant stuff that's been preoccupying our brains in order to suspend our reflections on the inevitable, all-encompassing meaninglessness.

2

Don't star that, lol.

Jasper

13:51

@userr2684291 That does sound very deep.

I think you and I can have many deep conversations on this, lol.

Hmm, I see I am still on the first page of users by rep this month, lol, not too bad.

userr2684291

(: That's great.

Jasper

Yeah you should know by now that I don't know much about English. All I do is answer simple questions to get some points and pass the time, lol.

SmokeDetector

14:19

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Few unique characters in answer, no whitespace in answer: What is the term for music without singer voice? by ANGEL HERNANDEZ-SANCHEZ on ell.SE

CowperKettle

@userr2684291 I loved a paragraph-long quote by a Russian writer about the same topic. I'll try to find it.

It's interesting that in our Gopher Chat in VKontakte.ru my bicycling friends are discussing the meaning(lessness) of life right now.

I noticed that and said to them that a guy from a flat neighboring my flat died 4 days ago.

35 yo guy, found a good job in the spring. But was very thin. Travelled to Yekaterinburg from St. Pete for a medical examination. They discovered cancer, and he died a few days later.

Tomorrow's the funeral.

Jasper

14:49

@CowperKettle I would probably say 'a guy from a neighboring flat' to shorten that sentence, lol.

Jasper

16:08

@CowperKettle I think one of the worst physical illnesses you can get is progeria, where you die at around twenty looking like eighty years old.

I got 500 points this month, yay!

userr2684291

17:55

@snailplane Could you tell me why you edited in the the here, but not in the paragraph before that one and the last paragraph? The sentences are basically equivalent. Is asterisk somehow different from dot? (By the way, I wasn't combing through your post history or such, I just saw the question you answered as related to one of the recent questions, and then I spotted that curious thing, haha.)

Jasper

@userr2684291 Even if you were combing through her posts, it's OK, lol.

userr2684291

@Jasper Fractional digits, etc., makes sense, but Google Ngrams prefers fractional part. I think your suggestions make sense when it's obvious what you're talking about, but I don't know if it's standard terminology. I also don't know why they're upvoting the answer suggesting mantissa because that's an ambiguous term, and the only reference the answerer provides is MathWorld's definition. I haven't been able to find that definition in any mainstream dictionaries except for Wiktionary.

Jasper

@userr2684291 I agree that it is not very established, but I wanted to give a reasonable answer anyway. Perhaps I will edit my answer now to include this caveat.

@userr2684291 I haven't come across mantissa myself, and fractional part doesn't even answer the question directly, just to add.

6

A: Do digits after the decimal point have a specific name?

You can call the digits to the left of the decimal point integer digits or integral digits and those to the right of the decimal point fraction digits or fractional digits. Java I/O, Harold (2006): For instance, in the number 31.415, there are two integer digits and three fraction digits. ...

I have now edited the answer into the best form possible, I hope, lol.

CowperKettle

@Jasper In about 2009 I was reading in-depth about progeria and its causes when I self-studied cell biology.

Nuclear lamina

The nuclear lamina is a dense (~30 to 100 nm thick) fibrillar network inside the nucleus of most cells. It is composed of intermediate filaments and membrane associated proteins. Besides providing mechanical support, the nuclear lamina regulates important cellular events such as DNA replication and cell division. Additionally, it participates in chromatin organization and it anchors the nuclear pore complexes embedded in the nuclear envelope. The nuclear lamina is associated with the inner face of the double bilayer nuclear envelope, whereas the outer face is continuous with the endoplasmic reticulum...

It is fascinating.

The state of research is amazing. Nanometer-size pieces of cell machinery are studied to an amazing detail.

And sometimes progeria will be conquered.

userr2684291

18:12

@Jasper I have – both in mathematics and computer science, and it never meant the fractional part (or the fractional part of a logarithm) exactly, but maybe that's just peculiar to my first language (even though I looked it up in our dictionary where it's similarly defined).

Jasper

@userr2684291 Another reason I wanted to post an answer is because I know that in math, there are all kinds of terms, some more common than others, and even though some terms are not so commonly used they actually still are used, just that you haven't seen enough books yet, lol.

@userr2684291 Yet another reason I wanted to post an answer is because although word requests can be very meaningless (what is a yellow cat that bit a red dog called?), this particular one seems meaningful and useful to have.

userr2684291

@Jasper Yeah, it's always good to provide another perspective, that's why more than one answer is allowed.

@Jasper Don't forget that it has to be a single word.

Jasper

@userr2684291 Well, the asker said one or two words in the question, and my answer is two words. Even if that was not specified, it is still OK, lol.

@userr2684291 In addition, I can always say that my answer is one word if you omit the word 'digit' itself, lol. Just wanted to add all interpretations here, lol.

userr2684291

18:28

@Jasper No, no – you don't have to comply with daft demands.

Jasper

@userr2684291 I don't like the answers mantissa and fractional part myself, because that's not exactly what the question seeks, but it is close enough though to be posted as answers, so they're OK too.

Anonymous

@userr2684291 Dunno. I mean, it's a fair point, but enough time has passed that I have no idea what I was thinking.

Anonymous

But, y'know, the dot feels a little off to me. I mean, there's lots of things called dot.

Anonymous

But there's only one thing called the asterisk.

Anonymous

I'd be more comfortable with saying I'd call it a dot.

Jasper

18:30

A dot doesn't exist, while asterisks can have different shapes. If you consider a dot to be infinitesimally small, lol.

Anonymous

For that matter, I could switch the asterisk to an asterisk, which just implies a slightly different way of thinking about it – as an instance rather than as a class of objects.

Anonymous

Might be better if they were all indefinite.

Anonymous

But, well, I'm a sloppy writer. News at nine. :-)

Catija

The only thing I can think of is "dot product".

But I'm not much of a mathematician.

Jasper

Dot product or scalar product.

The other product is the cross product or vector product.

These are for vectors in three-space.

LOL, now there is another question on the fractional part prompted by the earlier question.

I never really learnt the proper way to say numbers or formulas. I just say whatever I feel like saying, lol.

V.V.

18:38

Good time of the day!

Jasper

Talking about dots, a full stop or period in English is a dot, but that in Chinese is a small circle in the position of the dot.

userr2684291

Thanks for the explanation. By the way, the dot sounds weird to me as well, and asterisk already sounds unique, as though it's some kind of name. However, if I were to (re)define it at the beginning of a technical manual, I'd be completely fine with it. Perhaps I'd capitalize it, too (the Dot).

@Jasper In geometry, what I believe you're describing is called a point.

Jasper

18:53

@userr2684291 Hmm, I think so, though I have not studied any axiomatic geometry. Euclid's axioms are not completely rigorous in modern mathematics, and we need other axioms like Hilbert's.

@userr2684291 I believe a good book for axiomatic geometry though is John Lee's Axiomatic Geometry, which I have not gotten, lol.

userr2684291

It's just that a dot is a speck of dirt on the paper, whereas a point is something more abstract, is all.

Jasper

Ah it's 3 AM here in Antarctica, lol.

userr2684291

@Jasper Get some rest.

Jasper

@userr2684291 I don't sleep regular hours. Sort of completely random these days. =)

userr2684291

That reminds me – I have to get up early tomorrow and queue up.

Haha.

Jasper

19:05

To get another document to get another document, lol.

userr2684291

Exactly. I'm not even kidding, haha.

I think I'll go read some and then go to bed.

Jasper

OK, good night.

userr2684291

Good night!

Feeds

19:49

1

Q: Is it okay for me to my edit old posts?

When I was a novice user on ELL, I asked lots of silly questions because I was—and maybe am still—an incompetent speaker of English. I'm happy that our contributors treated those posts compassionately. The problem now is that some of my old posts make me cringe because they are full of awkward...

Jasper

@MetaEd Welcome to this room, lol.

Jasper

21:03

I got 600 points this month, yay, lol.

Feeds

22:20

0

Q: The "gig" question shoud be reopened

I think the following question is interesting and the meaning OP is looking for is not so intuitive as one might assume. Gig has a number of different definitions and the one about a temporary job is not among the first, the second or even the third more common meanings suggested by most diction...

support

Jasper

22:58

I got the mortarboard badge today, yay, lol.

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