Talk Like a Physicist Day
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.
Comments
Pingback from linkendeavour.com | All your Information in ONE PLACE » Blog Archive » Talk Like a Physicist [Uncertain Principles]
Time: March 14, 2008, 7:27 am
[...] Over at Swans on Tea, Tom offers some vocabulary tips: [...]
Comment from James Cronen
Time: March 14, 2008, 7:45 am
Oh, and if a number stays unchanged for any reason then it’s “conserved”.
Pingback from Talk Like a Physicist Day!
Time: March 14, 2008, 8:31 am
[...] 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 [...]
Comment from dr. dave
Time: March 14, 2008, 8:50 am
and “the rest is history” becomes “the rest is left as an exercise to the reader…”
Pingback from Hypography Science Forums - The Hypo TGIF Thread
Time: March 14, 2008, 10:23 am
[...] 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 [...]
Pingback from Isnochys » Blog Archive » Pi Tag
Time: March 14, 2008, 10:46 am
[...] Quelle [...]
Pingback from Talk Like a Physicist « Twisted One 151’s Weblog
Time: March 14, 2008, 10:57 am
[...] 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. [...]
Pingback from Talk Like a Physicist Day | Cosmic Variance
Time: March 14, 2008, 11:12 am
[...] are celebrating (intentionally or not), learning the joys of frictionless surfaces. And some handy reference guides have been [...]
Comment from Refasyday
Time: March 14, 2008, 11:29 am
HI
Hehe
Comment from Neil B.
Time: March 14, 2008, 4:19 pm
Also, don’t refer to “zero” and “one” directly. Say vanishingly small, or vanishes, and refer to “one” as “unity.”
Pingback from Happy Pi Day
Time: March 14, 2008, 10:23 pm
[...] 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 [...]
Pingback from Talk Like A Physicist | Talk Like A Physicist 3.14 » Today’s celebrations around the world
Time: March 15, 2008, 1:21 am
[...] 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… [...]
Pingback from Pages tagged “tea”
Time: March 15, 2008, 4:31 am
[...] 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 | [...]
Pingback from thoughts from gut bacteria » Talk like a Biologist Day!
Time: March 21, 2008, 10:16 am
[...] Swansont’s lead, I’m declaring March 21st annual Talk Like a Biologist Day. As far as I know, there is no [...]
Comment from Tea
Time: July 1, 2008, 5:15 am
I will add this to my “tasks of magnitude”
Comment from tea culture
Time: July 10, 2008, 8:52 pm
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”.
global RSS feed.
Comment from James Cronen
Time: March 14, 2008, 7:19 am
Reheating one’s coffee in the microwave becomes “adding kinetic energy”.