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[lojban] Re: railgun
--- Robin Lee Powell
<rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org> wrote:
> On Tue, May 24, 2005 at 12:38:41PM -0700, John
> E Clifford wrote:
> > So, I shouldn't answer your questions?
> >
> > Getting back to the issue, then, in the long
> word for "gun", all
> > of the places come from {cecla} and {xarci}.
> The use of {jinme}
> > for the bullets is either superfluous or
> inaccurate (if you think
> > that all bullets are metal, then it is the
> one, if you accept,
> > say, ceramic bullets, the other).
>
> *boggle*
>
> jinme is in there to *distinguish* bullets that
> are only used to
> fire metal bullets from other types, such as
> those that fire ceramic
> or rubber bullets. So it is neither
> superfluous nor inaccurate.
Ah, but you said you were getting a word for
"gun," not a more restricted concept, and so it
seems to be as you use your word for the base for
a different kind of gun. Of course, it is not
clear that {jinme} refers to the projectile and
{xukmi} to the propellant rather than the other
way around, but that is just selection. It is
also not clear that we are down to guns yet,
since rockets at least are chemical (as often
percentage wise as guns at least) and metal. But
the issue is mainly the other way, not does this
word pick out the right thing (though that is
nice) but does this word do a good job for the
thing picked out.
> > If you need to distinguish from other
> projecting weapons, then
> > guns are the ones that are 1) tubular and 2)
> work by explosions,
> > i.e., a sudden expansion of a fluid,
>
> A *fluid*?
>
> Ok, umm, you've just made it clear that you
> don't know how guns
> work. Unless, perhaps, you mean for the
> expanding gasses to be
> considered a fluid?
And so they were back in my college days. Has
science (and engineering) changed so much in this
area?
> However, what you just said does *not*
> distinguish "guns that fire
> metal bullets" from BB guns or air guns or
> paint guns, and hence is
> utterly useless for my needs.
But these are all guns. If you were aiming at
something else, say so (NOT after the fact).
> Lojban allows having more than one word
> depending on one's needs,
> you know.
Yes, but your needs did not enter into the
discussion. Your word is still not too great for
your needs. I remember the two German cowboys
facing of at hoch Mittag and one saying (more or
less) "Mach d' Handschiessgewehr los." Lojban
should do better.
> > {xukmi} enters very incidentally into the
> picture (puffs have
> > priority).
>
> Perhaps you have a different sense of xukmi
> than I do; I'm using
> xukmi to refer to the explosive substance, i.e.
> the stuff that in
> English is called "gunpowder".
I understood that just fine (though I though of
cordite); the point was that to be a gun the
propellant must make a pop, chemicals are just
one way of doing that (pumps-and-valves are the
other main one) so not really what separates
fguns from other launchers (as noted, rockets use
chemicals too).