15th March 2005, 4:24 PM
Yes, but the problem is if you only use definitions you just read for words you just found, you can sorta get their usage wrong... Makes it hard to translate this stuff with muddled meanings like that, especially if you actually happen to know a lot of the supposedly "big words"... For example, a circadian rythm is something that describes a process that happens in one day, as opposed to something that happens every day. The sleep wake cycle for example, while it IS done every day, when described as circadian is meant to describe the entire process as done in one day... Well that's what I gathered after hearing it a million times on the science channel.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)