| The Breakroom > The Water Cooler |
| Scale/rule ? |
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| philf:
--- Quote from: mklotz on March 30, 2015, 10:36:36 AM ---Before agonizing over the difference between "scale" and "rule", I think it would be a good idea to learn the difference between "your" and "you're" and "loose" and "lose". --- End quote --- I think that as long as you know what the poster is trying to say it doesn't really matter whether someone knows the difference between a scale and a rule or how to use apostrophes properly. It may be a mild annoyance to some but it's not 'the end of the world'. I spent most of my life working on a drafting machine (drawing board) which had two graduated bars (Imperial one side and Metric the other) permanently set at right angles to each other (they could be rotated at any angle 0-360) and, even though they were 1:1, we always called them scales and not rules! Perhaps wrongly but does it really matter. Phil. |
| NormanV:
When I was a draughtsman (sp) I used boxwood scale rulers in scales of 1/250, 1/2500 and 1/25000. I was working on maps and site plans |
| awemawson:
Well the etymology of the word scale is fascinating if you look it up, the sense we are using it as a series of lines seems to come originally from a 'scaling ladder' : scale (n.1) Look up scale at Dictionary.com "skin plates on fish or snakes," c.1300, from Old French escale "cup, scale, shell pod, husk" (12c., Modern French écale) "scale, husk," from Frankish *skala or some other Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *skælo "split, divide" (cognates: Dutch schaal "a scale, husk," Old High German scala "shell," Gothic skalja "tile," Old English scealu "shell, husk"), from PIE root *(s)kel- (1) "to cut, cleave, split" (cognates: Latin culter "knife," scalpere "to cut, scrape;" Old Church Slavonic skolika "mussel, shell," Russian skala "rind, bark," Lithuanian skelti "split," Old English scell "shell," scalu "drinking cup, bowl, scale of a balance"). In reference to humans, as a condition of certain skin diseases, it is attested from c.1400. As what falls from one's eye when blindness ends (usually figurative), it echoes Acts ix:18 (Latin tanquam squamæ, Greek hosei lepides). scale (n.2) Look up scale at Dictionary.com weighing instrument, early 15c.; earlier "pan of a balance" (late 14c.); earlier still "drinking cup" (c.1200), from Old Norse skal "bowl, drinking cup," in plural, "weighing scale" from a noun derivative of Proto-Germanic *skæla "split, divide" (cognates: Old Norse skel "shell," Old English scealu, Old Saxon skala "a bowl (to drink from)," Old High German scala, German Schale "a bowl, dish, cup," Middle Dutch scale, Dutch schaal "drinking cup, bowl, shell, scale of a balance"), from PIE root *skel- (1) "to cut" (see scale (n.1)). The connecting sense seems to be of half of a bivalve ("split") shell used as a drinking cup or a pan for weighing. But according to Paulus Diaconus the "drinking cup" sense originated from a supposed custom of making goblets from skulls (see skull). Related: Scales. This, as a name for the zodiac constellation Libra, is attested in English from 1630s. scale (v.1) Look up scale at Dictionary.com "to climb by or as by a ladder," late 14c., from scale (n.) "a ladder," from Latin scala "ladder, flight of stairs," from *scansla, from stem of scandere "to climb" (see scan (v.)). Related: Scaled; scaling. scale (n.3) Look up scale at Dictionary.com "series of registering marks to measure by; marks laid down to determine distance along a line," late 14c., from Latin scala "ladder, staircase" (see scale (v.1)). Meaning "succession or series of steps" is from c.1600; that of "standard for estimation" (large scale, small scale, etc.) is from 1620s. Musical sense (1590s), and the meaning "proportion of a representation to the actual object" (1660s) are via Italian scala, from Latin scala. scale (v.3) Look up scale at Dictionary.com "weigh in scales," 1690s, from scale (n.2). Earlier "to compare, estimate" (c.1600). Meaning "measure or regulate by a scale" is from 1798, from scale (n.3); that of "weigh out in proper quantities" is from 1841. Scale down "reduce proportionately" is attested from 1887. Scale factor is from 1948. Related: Scaled; scaling. scale (v.2) Look up scale at Dictionary.com "remove the scales of (a fish, etc.)," c.1400, from scale (n.1). Intransitive sense "to come off in scales" is from 1520s. Related: Scaled; scaling. |
| vtsteam:
To add to the merriment, I own an architect's rule, and an engineer's scale (both U.S. terms) . Both are three cornered and the engineer's is graduated in decimal parts of an inch, while the architect's is graduated in feet and fractional inches. I think the respective names are in sympathy with the tendency of architecture to think in terms of line and drawing (ruling), and engineering to think in terms of measuring and precision (scaling), not that either does so exclusively. Just a matter of how they perceive the primary function in the tools, and themselves. |
| NormanV:
Off topic but in a similar vein, when you are drawing a circle do you use a compass or a pair of compasses? I was brought up to use compasses to draw a circle (as in a pair of trousers) and a compass to find my way. |
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