In scientific usage, a light year is a unit of length equivalent to the distance light travels in a year in the vacuum of space: about 5,878,000,000,000,000 miles. But non-scientists apply the term much more freely, using light year for any extremely large comparative metric — be it distance, time, or branding skill:
Those who appreciate KISS more… will easily argue that they have taken the concert business to a new frontier and are light years ahead of their time in their emphasis on branding. (They even sell KISS-branded coffins and urns.) — Garrett Gravley, Dallas ObserverFebruary 21, 2019
To infinity…and beyond! (Or just 5,878,000,000,000 miles. Your choice.)
Here we see light year (sometimes that dash isn’t used) emphasizes the foresight with which the aesthetically-crazed band KISS jumped on the branding team. They point out that educated people in astronomy sometimes object to such usages: the light-year is a unit of length used to describe distances, not speed or knowledge. before. Phrase before the curve, which is defined in this dictionary as “doing something faster than someone else, company, etc”, however, is often modified by the words distance, as in “mile ahead of the curve”, so perhaps “curve light years ahead” is to use a standard hyperbola. But there are many other examples in there light year stray completely from its distance application:
School photo day: After what seems like light years since we were in high school, those three little words strung together are still enough to make even the most photogenic among us must also be afraid. — Marissa G. Muller, The glamorSeptember 7, 2016
Szabo’s vision articulated in 1995—equivalent to light years ago in digital time—was very precise… — Michael Gord, Bitcoin MagazineApril 26, 2016
This, light year obviously taking on the role of a unit of time—not a role light year was intended to have. Of course, words do not depend on the intentions of their creators, and light year moved from its strict “unit of length” meaning. And who can blame the speakers of this language for letting it go astray? After all, a year is a unit of time and we have a number year Time terms: financial year, calendar year, school year. Even astronomical year The terms are about time: lunar year, sidereal year, five universes.
However, it is helpful to note at this point that none of these hyphens have hyphens. Hyphens are often used in light year tell you that light And year linked in a particular fandango takes the form of shorthand in each: a light year is the distance that light travels per—that is, every—year. Someone upset about this might squarely blame the scientists themselves for semantics: they don’t include in the term any explicit references to lengths or distances, such as such as mile or km. The laity can be blamed for thinking that light year is the time period? On the other hand, scientists can be blamed for avoiding the whole problem of the metric system (aka the International System of Units) compared to the other system used only by the three countries above. The whole world including the country is the home of this dictionary here?
Maybe not. But your dictionary is not in the business of forgiving those to blame. We just want to make things clear. Light year technically, but unequivocally, is a unit of length used to describe distance. In non-technical use, it is applicable to any extremely large comparative measure. Do with what you will do.
Categories: Usage Notes
Source: vothisaucamau.edu.vn
