English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

« first day (1435 days earlier) ← previous day next day → last day (3782 days later) »

Damkerng T.

21:00

Szabolcs

What is the correct English term for describing the situation when I need to teach a class or two because the professor is gone for a week? Substitute teaching?

Cerberus

@snailboat I think so too, it was a nice surprise, from the earlier art style.

@DamkerngT. Wow, does that really work?

Damkerng T.

@Cerberus That's what I asked myself when I saw the ad!

Cerberus

@Szabolcs Sounds good to me!

At least substitute teacher is a commonly used term.

@DamkerngT. Hmm...

Szabolcs

@Cerberus Are you a native speaker? Or Dutch?

Damkerng T.

21:08

@Cerberus +1; However, I remember that they use different terms in different parts of the world. This might be useful: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substitute_teacher

Cerberus

I am Dutch.

@DamkerngT. Right!

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. This video is kind of strange: kickstarter.com/projects/1243275397/air-umbrella

Cerberus

From your link;

> In some regions, the qualifications for substitute teaching may not be as strict as those for a regular teacher.

Anonymous

Why wouldn't the person reading the text aloud help correct their grammar?

Szabolcs

I taught many hours of gradutate level courses when my prof was not available. I want to put this on my CV and I am looking for the correct term.

Cerberus

21:13

@snailboat I love the language, "for female".

Anonymous

@Cerberus They're making great efforts to improve the handness of their product.

Cerberus

@snailboat Exactly. But the pronunciation also sounds a bit odd, like a well practised non-native speaker.

Anonymous

@Cerberus Yeah, I was thinking that

Cerberus

@snailboat The handness already looks great!

Anonymous

But the pronunciation is better than most non-native speakers'

Cerberus

21:14

Absolutely.

Anonymous

I guess I expect someone talking like that to have a good grasp of the language

Damkerng T.

So they started with three products and ended the clip with "our product"?

Cerberus

@snailboat The same discrepancy stood out to me as I was watching.

> Air umbrella-a is available for female,It is about 30 centimeters in length and 500 grams in weight,It is not scalable.The battery life is about 15 minutes.

Damkerng T.

I can't visualize the scalability of umbrellas!

"available for female" sounds like something medical. :P

Cerberus

What they mean is that you can extend the "handle" lengthwise.

@DamkerngT. Haha yes, something medical spelled incorrectly.

Damkerng T.

21:30

@Cerberus Like, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruyi_Jingu_Bang, Sun Wukong's magical staff!

(I wonder if the shape of the umbrella was inspired by the staff.)

Cerberus

Probably!

Damkerng T.

> This is when Sun sees that the weapon is banded with a gold ring on each end, as well as the inscription along the body reading "The Compliant Golden-Hooped Rod. Weight: thirteen thousand five hundred [catties]" (如意金箍棒重一万三千五百斤). The inscription indicates that the staff follows the commands of its owner, shrinking or growing to their whim, and that it is immensely heavy, weighing 17,550 lbs (7,960 kg).

Fortunately, the umbrellas aren't that heavy!

Cerberus

21:45

But they're almost as useful!

Damkerng T.

@Cerberus As staffs, you mean?

Cerberus

As the magic staff.

Mitch

@IceBoy That's not totally clear. The wiki page isn't saying that, only that there is an additional prize just for women. I notice that a couple of the prizewinners of the female prize (Elzbth. Putnam) happened to have appeared on the Wm. Putnam list. But not all-. So something weird is going on.

Anonymous

I like staves better than staffs

Damkerng T.

@snailboat I see. Noted. It's good to know. Thanks!

Anonymous

21:56

@DamkerngT. But staffs is okay too :-)

Mitch

@snailboat I like baths rather than baths.

Damkerng T.

:-)

Mitch

I was going to say 'dwarves', but I think that would have sounded weird.

Damkerng T.

@Mitch I like bahts. The more the better!

Mitch

:) Have you ever noticed in Excel that they have some conversion functions (km to m, kg to lb), but of all the currencies in the world to convert they have a function to convert to baht? I never understood that.

Damkerng T.

22:02

@Mitch I haven't. I couldn't! Because I don't use Excel!

I bet that my accountant knows how to use Excel much better than me.

Cerberus

22:21

@snailboat So do I.

Johan Larsson

22:48

MetresPerSquareSecond | MetresPerSecondSquared?

@Mitch Are you writing a lib?

Andrew Leach

Acceleration? Metres per second squared.

Johan Larsson

but Area SquareMetres?

Andrew Leach

Yes.

Johan Larsson

ålrejt ty sir!

Andrew Leach

Acceleration can be expressed as Metres per second per second, hence "per second squared".

Johan Larsson

22:50

yeah

Cerberus

But a second squared is the same as a square second, rejt?

Andrew Leach

Ha. What does a square second [of time] look like?

The unit is "per second squared" because it's "per second per second".

Ice Boy

an area

Andrew Leach

Nothing to do with square seconds.

@IceBoy A square second of arc might look like an area. But not time.

Ice Boy

when you multiply any variable by itself, you get an area

Johan Larsson

22:55

the area of time

If anyone has OCD and time over I have an API that could use proofing. Still too beta though.

Andrew Leach

@IceBoy That's why it's not "per square second". It's not area; it's acceleration, per second per second.

= per second squared.

Johan Larsson

dervivatives more than multiplication

Ice Boy

square meter = meter squared

Andrew Leach

@JohanLarsson You could always upload it somewhere reasonably unlikely and post an obfuscated URL here. I'm sure people will look at it, even if they can't commit to something definite.

Cerberus

@AndrewLeach What does a second look like?

Johan Larsson

23:00

@AndrewLeach It is all public domian, that is why I worry :) Too early for proofing still, I change things.

Cerberus

@AndrewLeach This I think is almost tautological.

Ice Boy

square feet = feet squared

Andrew Leach

@Cerberus That's the whole point.

Johan Larsson

@Cerberus Like a drop of water but lighter.

Ice Boy

a "second" is a unit, and we can square that unit

Andrew Leach

23:02

@IceBoy No. You can't.

Ice Boy

yes, I can

Andrew Leach

Or, rather, if you do, the result is physically meaningless.

Johan Larsson

in m * v^2 it is pretty squared

Ice Boy

watch me

t*t

Cerberus

@JohanLarsson Mm oh, rejt.

@AndrewLeach But a second is always physically meaningless.

Johan Larsson

23:05

Does rejt mean anything in Dutch?

Cerberus

No.

Right would be recht.

We don't have -jt- in Dutch.

Ice Boy

3 mins ago, by Andrew Leach

Or, rather, if you do, the result is physically meaningless.

so acceleration is physically meaningless?

Cerberus

Except in -ijt-, but that ij is a vowel.

Andrew Leach

No, a square unit of time is physically meaningless. It's an area in the fourth dimension, which can't be demonstrated in three dimensions.

Acceleration can be demonstrated in three dimensions.

Ice Boy

that unit is apart of the measurement

Cerberus

23:08

The sine of a second is also meaningless. Doesn't mean we don't use it.

Andrew Leach

sines are ratios. And that second is an angle.

Ice Boy

m/s/s = m/(s^2)

the LHS is just as meaningful as the RHS

ageed?

Andrew Leach

In symbols, yes. But in English words, it's said to be "per second squared".

We come down to the basic ELU thing of "It's an idiom. Learn it."

As a certain professor might say. Possibly.

Cerberus

Well, if you say so. I like that argument better than the other.

Ice Boy

I never liked the word "idiom" it sounds too much like "idiot" :-)

Johan Larsson

23:14

has there been much unit talk here today?

I've been coding not reading.

Ice Boy

you started it pal

just kidding

:-)

Johan Larsson

Ice Boy

23:50

@JohanLarsson books.google.com/ngrams/…

Johan Larsson

ah, yeah nice use of ngram

Ice Boy

:-)

Johan Larsson

Have you ever seen a Sterdian?

SI derived unit

The International System of Units (SI) specifies a set of seven base units from which all other SI units of measurement are derived. Each of these other units (SI derived units) is either dimensionless or can be expressed as a product of (positive or negative, but usually integral) powers of one or more of the base units. For example, the SI derived unit of area is the square metre (m2), and the SI derived unit of density is the kilogram per cubic metre (kg/m3 or kg m−3). The degree Celsius (see the table below) has a somewhat unclear status, and is arguably an exception to this rule. The names...

found a nice table