I have no idea why, but convention. And not a thing where nerds like me gather to dork out about something, but a scientific standard. Whenever I’m explaining something, and someone asks why it operates that way, I’m always like, “it’s that way by… uh… y’know, it’s always been that way.” No clue why I always blank on that word specifically.
I am very thesaurus-minded and express myself precisely when possible, so I don’t have any words I just forget, but once in a while I might not be able to find a word that embodies what I’m trying to get across, which is always frustrating as someone whose first language does have an equivalent to the missing word in question.
I had to look it up for this post. My brain’s inability to recall the word for detonation velocities lower than the speed of sound wasn’t an issue until rotating detonation engines started to make news and I’ve needed to explain the difference between explosions and deflagrations to people.
Add comment