On May 9, 2009, at 11:02 AM, Jeff Tanner wrote: > I rather think it is the physicists here who are being obtuse and > unwilling to accept that the word amplify is understood by non- > physicists to mean something slightly different that what it means > to a physicist. We're bickering over a semantics issue when > everybody on the list knew what I meant. Let's move on and accept > that what I meant was that the "volume of noise was made larger and > more powerful" rather than trying to make others feel stupid and > ignorant in front of the congregation. Hi Jeff, There is no need to take something like this personally, as some conspiracy to make someone feel stupid. I don't think there has been any intent in that direction. The point of this exercise in talking about the meaning of a word is to make it possible to communicate. If we don't use words in a careful way, we miscommunicate, we talk at cross purposes. This is basic stuff. Yes, granted, there is a common misconception that a soundboard is an "amplifier." But it isn't. It is something that turns vibrational energy into "sound" by moving air. I suggest you contemplate what Del wrote: The soundboard doesn't make the sound of the string louder, it makes the sound. The vibrating string coupled to the soundboard makes the sound. If we want to get at what is actually happening in a piano, we need to understand these very basic facts, whether or not the general public at large understands them. If we want to try to figure out why some sound is produced under certain circumstances, we need to base our discussion on physical realities, and we need to use terminology correctly and consistently, or we won't get anywhere, other maybe yelling at one another and making sarcastic remarks and other rather stupid wastes of everybody's time. I think we all understand "what you meant." I don't think physicists are being obtuse, nor that we are talking about a "slightly different" meaning. If we want to be professionals, we need to go to the time and effort to learn enough physics to understand the processes. Regards, Fred Sturm University of New Mexico fssturm at unm.edu
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