4 ms·
Hi! This is the Yelling Math Fairy and THE WORD EXPONENTIAL DOES NOT MEAN MORE. IT IT IS A MATH WORD. IT MEANS e^kx. IT MEANS THE SOLUTION OF y' = ky. DOES
by Eliezer 12y ago
Hi! This is the Yelling Math Fairy and THE WORD EXPONENTIAL DOES NOT MEAN MORE. IT IT IS A MATH WORD. IT MEANS e^kx. IT MEANS THE SOLUTION OF y' = ky. DOES EACH NEW ASSAY DOUBLE THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF WORK? NO IT DOES NOT. THE ADDED OVERHEAD FOR EACH ASSAY IS LINEAR GROWTH. NOT EXPONENTIAL GROWTH. I KNOW IT SEEMS LIKE A LOT TO YOU BUT THAT DOES NOT MAKE IT EXPONENTIAL. EXPONENTIAL IS NOT A SYNONYM FOR BIG AND EXPONENTIAL GROWTH IS NOT A SYNONYM FOR FAST. THANK YOU.
- emmett 12y agoKeep fighting the good fight, Eliezer. To add on: Some words have valuable and specific meanings! We don't have a good substitute word for "exponential" that means the same thing. Please make an effort not to do this!
- irollboozers 12y agoSorry, but in this case, it's actually N^x. Even running PCR and gel analysis requires steps where the time is dependent on the number of samples (e.g. pipetting, walking to the centrifuge, making multiple gels)
- emmett 12y agoGenerally speaking, running double the number of samples requires approximately double the amount of work, maybe a little less since you're doing it in bulk. Are you really saying that going from 10 samples to 11 samples causes a doubling (or 1.2x-ing or tripling or whatever) of the time/work required? That's what exponential means.