Re: shuttle disaster

[Gary Turner <kk5st@sbcglobal.net>]

Paul Johnson wrote:

>On Sat, Feb 08, 2003 at 10:32:10PM -0600, Gary Turner wrote:
>> My dictionary (American Heritage College Dictionary) sz they're
>> synonyms.  Save your valuable exemption for a real error :)
>
>And American Heritage Dictionary also screws up the definition of
>"hacker," giving it the meaning of "cracker."  This should be a clue
>in this group.  Use dict instead, as you can (usually) get multiple
>sources for the definition (geosynchronous and geostationary being an
>exception, apparently).
>
>All geostationary orbits are also geosynchronous, but not all
>geosynchronous orbits are geostationary.
>
>baloo@ursine:~$ dict geosynchronous
>1 definition found
>
>From WordNet (r) 1.7 [wn]:
>
>  geosynchronous
>       adj : of or having an orbit with a fixed period of 24 hours
>             (although the position in the orbit may not be fixed
>             with respect to the earth)
>baloo@ursine:~$ dict geostationary
>1 definition found
>
>From WordNet (r) 1.7 [wn]:
>
>  geostationary
>       adj : of or having a geosynchronous orbit such that the
>       position
>             in such an orbit is fixed with respect to the earth; "a
>             geostationary satellite"

True, true.  Any orbit not sharing Earth's axis will have an apparent
figure 8 track.  However, the parameters of the orbit (over the equator)
defines an orbit that is the stationary subset of synchronous orbits.
So, within the context of the thread, they are synonymous, if not in the
general case.

>From a logic class many years ago:

	"All Volvo drivers are liberal, but not all liberals drive Volvos."

Here we are talking about a particular liberal that *does* drive a
Volvo. :)

Either way, it's a good catch.
--
gt                  kk5st@sbcglobal.net
 If someone tells you---
 "I have a sense of humor, but that's not funny." 
                                  ---they don't.