Microgravity parable
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Scientist: "I just measured this box with my ruler. It has one
human-foot."
CT: "You mean to say that the box is one foot long, right?"
Scientist: "I mean to say that it has one human-foot."
CT: "How can it have a human foot if it is just a box? I'm certain
that what you mean to say is that your box has the same length as one
human foot, with length being a common quality to both the box and the
foot. But a "human-foot" as a bodily appendage is distinctly
different from a "foot" as a measure of length."
Scientist: "You are just being pedantic. The terminology you are
using may apply to the field of biology, but it does not apply to my
specialty field of measuring boxes."
CT: "Um, no. I see a distinct conceptual difference between a human
foot and the length of the side of a box."
Scientist: "Now you're just playing with semantics!"
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