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English is weird
Gyrre:
--- Quote from: cybersmurf on 22 Dec 2020, 06:45 ---Is it possible "error" is more quantifiable? Since it's called "margin of error". Something in the likes of hair vs hairs (not singular vs plural, but the quantifiable amount of single hairs vs. the thing as a whole)
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That's partly why I said errors happen when working within a system. Errors are more science-y related.
Wingy:
--- Quote from: Is it cold in here? on 20 Dec 2020, 21:21 ---I worked on avionics once and there was a box on a diagram labeled "error amplifier".
It's not as funny as it sounds. "Error" is in that context the technical term for the difference between where a control surface is commanded to be and where it currently is. Every time it has to move, there is an "error" measured.
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And for those not versed in analog systems, the error amplifier exists to make the apparent error larger so the remainder of the analog computer 1) knows it exists and 2) can then use the resulting value in the next calculations and movement. The goal is to drive the error value to zero, which will never happen in a physical system, but when the system is relatively stable, zero can be approached pretty closely, which means sensing the error can be difficult and then responding to it properly is similarly difficult. Digital systems avoid this problem but at the expense of having "dead bands", places in between where a particular sensor can take a meaningful reading. If the dead band is small enough, that is designed properly, it's not an issue. Example: if your flight surface can be positioned between +90 and -90 and an analog sensor can read this to within one decimal place (+/- 0.1) and the system commands the surface to move to 5.0, after the movement is complete the surface might be anywhere between 5.2 and 4.8. Let's assume it's at 5.2; the error between the actual and the command is 5.2-5=0.2. That error will then be fed back into the next command to the flight surface to hopefully get smaller. And as the error gets smaller, down to the sensor limit, the more important it is to amplify so the system will be able to compute an appropriate adjusted result. However, if the system is digital and the sensor is accurate to 1.0, then the actual error of 0.2 would be read as an error of 1.0 (the sensor limit) or 0, depending. Now the digital system would feed either 0 or 1 back into the next movement and the cycle repeats. Notice that there is finer control in the analogue system, but that may not be important to the overall stability of the aircraft - it would depend on many other design factors. And that's why you hire top engineers who know their stuff.
Gyrre:
So, 'foyer' and 'lobby' are interchangeable, but what's the difference between those and a 'vestibule'?
According to wiktionary, a vestibule is an 'entrance court', but the space between the two sets of doors at any grocery store or W*lm*rt or T*rget are also referred to as a vestibule. And I've seen some pretty dinky vestibules.
[IDK why I used asterisks. It just seemed appropriate.]
sitnspin:
I have only experience vestibule being used to refer the space between two sets of entry doors, vaguely akin to the airlock in a spaceship. I've never heard anyone use it to refer to a courtyard.
Also, in my area of the country, "lobby" and "foyer" are typically used for different things. Lobby is used for the central public area near the entrance of business, apartment complex, or government building while a foyer is generally the area just inside the front entrance of a house.
Gnabberwocky:
Is there an adverb form of "friendly?" Like a single word for "in a friendly manner?"
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