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Admit your Brain lock

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tggzzz:

--- Quote from: Zero999 on April 05, 2024, 06:32:58 pm ---I still don't see the point in make it more difficult than necessary.

--- End quote ---

Isn't that true for everything?

The discussion now pivots to the definition of "more difficult" and "necessary" :)

Siwastaja:

--- Quote from: nctnico on April 05, 2024, 06:24:03 pm ---If you have the same issue as Zero999 (not registering the difference between symbols), then I'm afraid the problem is at your end (even though it isn't your fault). It is similar for a color blind not being able to work in a paint shop. And I'm not trying to make fun here. Somebody I know works at a hardware store but due to color blindness, this person can't work at the paint department. However the person can't tell the world to discard every color a color blind person can't distinguish.

--- End quote ---

Yet, somehow, magically, I have zero problem with symbols otherwise, and definitely am not dyslexic. I read and write pretty fast and make very few spelling mistakes.

And yet, if course material represents a formula with four different styles of r in it, my brain locks and I have to use much more time to parse it, than the complexity of the formula itself would require. Or if the definitions of symbols are missing, as is quite common, I say "fuck it" and try to invest my precious time in a more fruitful way.

Siwastaja:

--- Quote from: IanB on April 05, 2024, 06:28:17 pm ---It would only be obfuscation if people were choosing unconventional symbols for things, and also not explaining what they are being used for.

--- End quote ---

But exactly this happens on a regular basis. When I point it out, people deny it by explaining that E is "completely usual" notation for voltage and I'm just stupid and wrong for not realizing that it's not energy this time.

At least volume and voltage rarely appear on the same formula - but sometimes they do.

IanB:

--- Quote from: Zero999 on April 05, 2024, 06:32:58 pm ---I agree about learning like that and can cope to some degree, especially with print, but stood no chance with handwriting. I still don't see the point in make it more difficult than necessary.

--- End quote ---

Well, we have the unfortunate situation that the Roman alphabet does quickly run out of letters if you want them to be intuitive (thus we may use V for voltage, L for length, A for area, C for capacitance, N for number of turns, and so on). And we have the convention in algebra that adjacent symbols are multiplied. So if we tried to use \$ang\$ for angular velocity, it could be confused with \$a \times n \times g\$. We could try to use v or V, but that is already taken for voltage. Maybe A, but that's often area. Hence history settled on Greek letter omega (\$\omega\$). It wasn't done to confuse, it was done to avoid confusion.

nctnico:
There are some different conventions indeed. In the world of physics E can be used for Voltage and Energy. In the world of electricity E and P can be used for power. Typically the units used in a formula give a hint about what is what. I don't recall formulas where people use random symbols if there is a domain specific convention.

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