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PaperclipPerfector  6d ago (text post)   2677 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 16, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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The page count is in fact an exact metric for how long the book is...

Why is Hamlet 128x as long as Hamlet?

It doesn't matter how the size of the type face, or how it's laid out, a given volume is by definition N pages long.

Me, seeing a conversation piece: That's a great book, I read it back in high school.

SubstantialFrivolity, probably: You must be thinking of something else. This book was printed in 2024. I'm glad you're interested, because it brings up fond memories of my highschool English class where we read a book that contains identical text.

In common conversation, "book" refers to the text. Hamlet is 31,873 words regardless of which physical structure the words are in. Pages can only refer to specific editions of books: The Dover Publications Reprint edition (Sept. 24 1992) of Hamlet is 128 pages, while the One Page Book Company edition is one page.

In common conversation, "book" refers to the text.

That's not true. In common conversation, "book" refers to the text as well as a given volume. You don't say "hey give me that volume of the text of Hamlet over there", you say "hey give me that book over there".

"Book", much like "length", is an overloaded word in the English language. That's why it's not accurate to pick on one particular definition and insist that it's the objectively correct one, the way Folamh did.

In common conversation, "book" refers to the text as well as a given volume. You don't say "hey give me that volume of the text of Hamlet over there", you say "hey give me that book over there".

Alice: "Can you pass the water?"

Bob: "Sure" Splash

Alice: "WTF?"

Bob: "If you wanted the water and the pitcher, you should have asked for them both."

"Book", much like "length", is an overloaded word in the English language. That's why it's not accurate to pick on one particular definition and insist that it's the objectively correct one, the way Folamh did.

I didn't read that from his comments at all. Maybe it was edited out or I missed it downthread.

Amazon lists the length of their books right next to width and height. Did I miss an argument that shipping dimensions should be removed because they aren't "true" length? Was there an argument about film-based movies being measured in "meters" (dependent on frame rate, film size, and runtime)?

From my reading, he wanted an additional piece of information that isn't commonly available, provides some useful information, and has the advantage of being almost entirely invariant through common and irrelevant changes (e.g. new editions of books).

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