3 ms·

The name serves as a mnemonic, not a diagnostic criteria! My brain is overloaded with emacs keybindings, I can’t memorize any more arbitrary lists! What can yo

by driggs 5y ago

The name serves as a mnemonic, not a diagnostic criteria! My brain is overloaded with emacs keybindings, I can’t memorize any more arbitrary lists! What can you tell me about Fe₃O₄? _blank stare_ What can you tell me about Magnetite? A ha!

akiselev 5y ago
> What can you tell me about Magnetite? A ha! What about Fe₃Si (suessite)? Fe²⁺Fe³⁺₂S₄ (greigite)? They too are magnetic. I don't think magnetite is even the only magnetic mineral with Fe₃O₄ and if you want to be precise it should be ferromagnetite, because every thing from Fe₂O₃ (hematite) to FeTiO₃ (ilmenite) are weakly magnetic.
- driggs 5y ago
  You’ve completely missed the point. “Seuss” presumably tells you something meaningful about suessite. “Greig” presumably tells you something meaningful about greigite. “Dave Mao” doesn’t tell you anything about davemaoite.
  - rigrets 5y ago
    I've just had a quick search, and apparently both seussite and greigite are named after people, exactly like davemaoite. > Suessite is a rare iron silicide mineral with chemical formula: Fe₃Si. The mineral was named after Professor Hans E. Suess. And: > Greigite is an iron sulfide mineral with the chemical formula Fe2+ Fe3+ 2S 4. It is the sulfur equivalent of the iron oxide magnetite. [and was] named after the mineralogist and physical chemist Joseph W. Greig. (From Wikipedia)
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
  - akiselev 5y ago
    > You’ve completely missed the point. I don't understand your point because it is nonsense: magnetite was named after Magnes [1] and Pliny wrote about him and his discovery two thousand years ago. The most credible alternatives for the etymology of "magnetite" are Magnesia ad Sipylum (Manisa, TY) or Magnesia, GR, all of which existed long before the concepts of ferro- or electro-magnetism were described. Either way, eurocentrism is the only reason you associate the word "magne-{whatever}" with the physical phenomenon. Magnes/Manisa/Magnesia => magnetite => more than a millenium of development in physics and language => magnetism => you associating "magnetite" with "magnetic". All words are made up. > “Seuss” presumably tells you something meaningful about suessite. > “Greig” presumably tells you something meaningful about greigite. Narrator: they don't. They were keywords to search for before making a nonsensical argument. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnes_the_shepherd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnes_the_shepherd
    - driggs 5y ago
      Is my point nonsense, or are you unable to see past your own pedantry? Sure, if you insist on invoking Pliny The Elder, I'll grant you that magnetite was originally a bad name. And then humans discovered electromagnetism. Now geology students all over the world invoke a word that didn't even exist - which has the same root name as the mineral, owing to the fact that the mineral has that property. It's now a good name. And every modern geology student is thankful, because they think of "magnetism", not the thousand-year-old root of the word "magnetism" which predated our discovery of the physical phenomenon. I wrote "presumably" in my reply to you above because I don't know or care what seussite is, and was typing on a cell phone at 2AM. The point was the point. If I flipped a boolean bit because you were trying to trick me, then all you've done is prove that those examples are also bad names rather than good names. Names ought to have meaning, when possible, rather than being arbitrary. If you still think that point is nonsense, and are unable to understand that argument beyond the details of an example, then you're going to have a long successful career as the guy people regret inviting to their party. PS: Disagreeing with an argument doesn't make it nonsense.

by driggs 5y ago

akiselev 5y ago

> What can you tell me about Magnetite? A ha! What about Fe₃Si (suessite)? Fe²⁺Fe³⁺₂S₄ (greigite)? They too are magnetic. I don't think magnetite is even the only magnetic mineral with Fe₃O₄ and if you want to be precise it should be ferromagnetite, because every thing from Fe₂O₃ (hematite) to FeTiO₃ (ilmenite) are weakly magnetic.

driggs 5y ago
You’ve completely missed the point. “Seuss” presumably tells you something meaningful about suessite. “Greig” presumably tells you something meaningful about greigite. “Dave Mao” doesn’t tell you anything about davemaoite.
- rigrets 5y ago
  I've just had a quick search, and apparently both seussite and greigite are named after people, exactly like davemaoite. > Suessite is a rare iron silicide mineral with chemical formula: Fe₃Si. The mineral was named after Professor Hans E. Suess. And: > Greigite is an iron sulfide mineral with the chemical formula Fe2+ Fe3+ 2S 4. It is the sulfur equivalent of the iron oxide magnetite. [and was] named after the mineralogist and physical chemist Joseph W. Greig. (From Wikipedia)
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- akiselev 5y ago
  > You’ve completely missed the point. I don't understand your point because it is nonsense: magnetite was named after Magnes [1] and Pliny wrote about him and his discovery two thousand years ago. The most credible alternatives for the etymology of "magnetite" are Magnesia ad Sipylum (Manisa, TY) or Magnesia, GR, all of which existed long before the concepts of ferro- or electro-magnetism were described. Either way, eurocentrism is the only reason you associate the word "magne-{whatever}" with the physical phenomenon. Magnes/Manisa/Magnesia => magnetite => more than a millenium of development in physics and language => magnetism => you associating "magnetite" with "magnetic". All words are made up. > “Seuss” presumably tells you something meaningful about suessite. > “Greig” presumably tells you something meaningful about greigite. Narrator: they don't. They were keywords to search for before making a nonsensical argument. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnes_the_shepherd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnes_the_shepherd
  - driggs 5y ago
    Is my point nonsense, or are you unable to see past your own pedantry? Sure, if you insist on invoking Pliny The Elder, I'll grant you that magnetite was originally a bad name. And then humans discovered electromagnetism. Now geology students all over the world invoke a word that didn't even exist - which has the same root name as the mineral, owing to the fact that the mineral has that property. It's now a good name. And every modern geology student is thankful, because they think of "magnetism", not the thousand-year-old root of the word "magnetism" which predated our discovery of the physical phenomenon. I wrote "presumably" in my reply to you above because I don't know or care what seussite is, and was typing on a cell phone at 2AM. The point was the point. If I flipped a boolean bit because you were trying to trick me, then all you've done is prove that those examples are also bad names rather than good names. Names ought to have meaning, when possible, rather than being arbitrary. If you still think that point is nonsense, and are unable to understand that argument beyond the details of an example, then you're going to have a long successful career as the guy people regret inviting to their party. PS: Disagreeing with an argument doesn't make it nonsense.