[soc.culture.misc] Technical terms and rules of thumb

credmond@watmath.UUCP (03/16/87)

I am hoping to write an article (or something) about the way in which
technical terms and 'rules of thumb' from professional, scientific
and recreational fields find their way into general speech, and
into people's view of the world in general -- or how such terms and
concepts could be useful in daily life.

Sounds broad, I know.  To help me refine the idea, as well as to
produce a pool of possible examples, I would welcome any suggestions,
especially short lists of terms and rules-of-thumb from your field
of expertise which you think are, or could be, in general use as
analogies or metaphors.

Simple examples are "getting to first base" from baseball (now
used in fields as diverse as business and sex), "redundancy"
from cipher theory, "garbage in garbage out" from you-know-where.

  Chris

(many sites)!watmath!credmond

haber@sunybcs.UUCP (03/18/87)

In article <6029@watmath.UUCP> credmond@watmath.UUCP (Chris Redmond) writes:
>I am hoping to write an article (or something) about the way in which
>technical terms and 'rules of thumb' from professional, scientific
>and recreational fields find their way into general speech, and
>into people's view of the world in general 





I wonder where the term RULE OF THUM came from?

jeff@rtech.UUCP (03/20/87)

in article <2624@sunybcs.UUCP>, haber@sunybcs.UUCP (Yaacov Haber) says:
> In article <6029@watmath.UUCP> credmond@watmath.UUCP (Chris Redmond) writes:
>>I am hoping to write an article (or something) about the way in which
>>technical terms and 'rules of thumb' from professional, scientific
>>and recreational fields find their way into general speech, and
>>into people's view of the world in general 
> 
> I wonder where the term RULE OF THUM came from?

It probably comes from one of the original rules of thumb: the distance from
the tip of one's thumb to the first knuckle is about an inch.
-- 
Jeff Lichtman at rtech (Relational Technology, Inc.)
"Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent..."

{amdahl, sun}!rtech!jeff
{ucbvax, decvax}!mtxinu!rtech!jeff

jbm@aurora.UUCP (03/21/87)

> I wonder where the term RULE OF THUM came from?

I doubt this is the true answer to your question, but one
"rule of thumb" for esimating the visual size (in subtended degrees of
visual angle) of an object is that the thumbnail subtends about
one degree when held at arm's length.

-- 

	Jeff Mulligan (jbm@ames-aurora.arpa)
	NASA/Ames Research Ctr., Mail Stop 239-3, Moffet Field CA, 94035
	(415) 694-5150