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Talk Like a Physicist Day

Published by swansont on March 14, 2008 04:37 am under Physics, Silly

Today’s the day! I’m all over this one. Talk like a physicist

If anyone needs some pointers:

Use “canonical” when you mean “usual” or “standard.” As in, “the canonical example of talking like a physicist is to use the word ‘canonical.'”

Use “orthogonal” to refer to things that are mutually-exclusive or can’t coincide. “We keep playing phone tag — I think our schedules must be orthogonal”

“About” becomes “to a first-order approximation”

Things are not difficult, they are “non-trivial”

Large discrepancies are “orders of magnitude apart”

Refer to coordinates and coordinate systems. “I got shafted” becomes “I took one up the z-axis”

Any actual personal experience becomes “empirical data.” i.e. a burn on your hand is empirical data that the stove is hot.

You’re not being lazy, you are in your ground state.

A semi-educated guess is an extrapolation

You aren’t ignoring details, you are taking the ideal case

A tiny amount is “vanishingly small” or “negligible.” Really small is “infinitesimal”

You aren’t overweight, you are thermodynamically efficient

Stuck in a meeting is “trapped in a potential well,” though you hope you can “tunnel out.” Alternatively, it can be a black hole, from which there is no escape.

it’s not a wire, it’s a “conductor”

It’s not light, they are photons. Turning on the lamp becomes emitting photons.

20 Comments so far

  1. James Cronen on March 14th, 2008

    Reheating one’s coffee in the microwave becomes “adding kinetic energy”.

  2. linkendeavour.com | All your Information in ONE PLACE » Blog Archive » Talk Like a Physicist [Uncertain Principles] on March 14th, 2008

    […] Over at Swans on Tea, Tom offers some vocabulary tips: […]

  3. James Cronen on March 14th, 2008

    Oh, and if a number stays unchanged for any reason then it’s “conserved”.

  4. Talk Like a Physicist Day! on March 14th, 2008

    […] had no idea that such an event existed! I only found out this morning because of Tom’s post in Swans on Tea (in turn from this post in Cosmic Variance). Really, people, you need to keep me […]

  5. dr. dave on March 14th, 2008

    and “the rest is history” becomes “the rest is left as an exercise to the reader…”

  6. Hypography Science Forums - The Hypo TGIF Thread on March 14th, 2008

    […] The Hypo TGIF Thread – Today, 07:26 AM So, I learned here that today is "Talk like a physicist day." Talk Like A Physicist | Talk Like A Physicist […]

  7. Isnochys » Blog Archive » Pi Tag on March 14th, 2008

    […] Quelle […]

  8. Talk Like a Physicist « Twisted One 151’s Weblog on March 14th, 2008

    […] Talk Like a Physicist Today is also Talk Like a Physicist day. For helpful advise on how to talk like a physicist, investigate T Swanson’s blog. […]

  9. Talk Like a Physicist Day | Cosmic Variance on March 14th, 2008

    […] are celebrating (intentionally or not), learning the joys of frictionless surfaces. And some handy reference guides have been […]

  10. Refasyday on March 14th, 2008

    HI

    Hehe

  11. Neil B. on March 14th, 2008

    Also, don’t refer to “zero” and “one” directly. Say vanishingly small, or vanishes, and refer to “one” as “unity.”

  12. Happy Pi Day on March 14th, 2008

    […] thing about today is that it is “Talk like a physicist day.” Here is some examples (thanks to Swans on Tea): Refer to coordinates and coordinate systems. “I got shafted” becomes “I took one up the […]

  13. Talk Like A Physicist | Talk Like A Physicist 3.14 » Today’s celebrations around the world on March 15th, 2008

    […] Any actual personal experience becomes “empirical data.” i.e. a burn on your hand is empirical data that the stove is hot. You’re not being lazy, you are in your ground state. more… […]

  14. Pages tagged "tea" on March 15th, 2008

    […] tagged teaOwn a WordPress blog? Make monetization easier with the WP Affiliate Pro plugin. Talk Like a Physicist Day saved by 3 others     GiuGomgJmHfiV bookmarked on 03/15/08 | […]

  15. thoughts from gut bacteria » Talk like a Biologist Day! on March 21st, 2008

    […] Swansont’s lead, I’m declaring March 21st annual Talk Like a Biologist Day.  As far as I know, there is no […]

  16. Tea on July 1st, 2008

    I will add this to my “tasks of magnitude”

  17. tea culture on July 10th, 2008

    Tea culture is the crystallization of Chinese people’s tradition and custom of drinking tea combined with the development of their technique of processing tea leaves to produce the final product. Tea is a shrub ( Thea sinensis ) which has fragrant white flowers and evergreen leaves. The dried leaves of this plant, plucked in various stages of growth and prepared by various processes, are used to make a hot beverage. If the leaves are fully fermented or oxidized before drying, the final product is called black tea because it is dark in color. “Black tea” is the term used by English-speaking people. In the Chinese language it is referred to as “red tea” in contrast to “green tea”.

  18. Jim Tomas - Black Tea on December 19th, 2008

    I’m not a physicist, but I like to talk this way because it’s really cool 🙂

  19. Swans on Tea Talk Like a Physicist Day | Green Tea Fat Burner on June 7th, 2009

    […] Swans on Tea Talk Like a Physicist Day Posted by root 3 hours ago (http://blogs.scienceforums.net) Comment from tea culture time july 10 2008 8 52 pm tea culture is the crystallization of powered by wordpress theme design by andreas viklund Discuss  |  Bury |  News | Swans on Tea Talk Like a Physicist Day […]

  20. Science Fanatic on January 30th, 2018

    Even for the physicist, the description in plain language will be a criterion of the degree of understanding that has been reached. Werner Heisenberg (Nobel Prize winner in physics)

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