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Re: [uom-ontology-std] What is mass?

To: "'uom-ontology-std'" <uom-ontology-std@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: "Matthew West" <dr.matthew.west@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 2009 08:40:14 +0100
Message-id: <4ac5ae7d.0707d00a.5f9e.006c@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Dear Pat,    (01)

> > Matthew West wrote:
> >> Dear Ingvar,
> >>
> >> This sounds like an interesting challenge.
> >>
> >>> I am as aware of the contents of VIM as of the SI brochure, and
> >>> your
> >>> "n.b." makes exactly my point. What you might call "newton-
> meter as
> >>> a unit
> >>> alone", I prefer to call "nominal newton-meter". However, note
> that
> >>> only
> >>> some units can be called nominal units and tied to more than
> one
> >>> kind-of-quantity; many units are unambiguously tied only to one
> >>> kind-of-quantity.
> >>
> >> Could you give me a unit (or two) that you think only applies to
> one
> >> kind-of-quantity, and I'll see if I can identify another?
> >>
> >> Engineering is full of things like Maximum Allowable Working
> >> Temperature, which is certainly not a temperature (try measuring
> it
> >> with
> >> a thermometer).
> >
> >
> > Why is maximum allowable temperature not a temperature?
> 
> It is a temperature.     (02)

MW: Then tell me which temperatures are the maximum allowable ones?    (03)

> But its not the temperature OF anything (we
> hope,
> if things are working right.) That is, there is nothing which has
> that
> temperature. In Matthew's overarching ontological framework, that
> might mean it doesn't exist (? Matthew, sorry if I get this wrong.)    (04)

MW: There is a possible world in which there is something that has that
temperature.
> 
> > Just because
> > it isn't realized? It is a temperature specification. It is a
> quantity
> > even if it doesn't exist anywhere at any particular moment in
> time.
> 
> I tend to agree. Quantities (as opposed to things that have them)
> should probably be viewed in a Platonic light in any case, like
> numbers, so they don't actually have places and moments to exist
> in.
> Even for the most case-hardened nominalists (among which I count
> myself), it isn't practical to try to get along without some
> abstractions in the universe of discourse.    (05)

MW: Yes I agree it is a quantity, but it is not an instance of
temperature. It is a quantity that makes a reference to an instance of
temperature.    (06)

Regards    (07)

Matthew West                            
Information  Junction
Tel: +44 560 302 3685
Mobile: +44 750 3385279
matthew.west@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.informationjunction.co.uk/
http://www.matthew-west.org.uk/    (08)

This email originates from Information Junction Ltd. Registered in
England and Wales No. 6632177.
Registered office: 2 Brookside, Meadow Way, Letchworth Garden City,
Hertfordshire, SG6 3JE.    (09)



> 
> Pat H.
> 
> >
> > But of course that is another issue and I still agree that a
> maximum
> > allowable temperature of this machine can not be well compared
> with
> > the water temperature of my pool -- but then they can if the
> machine
> > is meant to go into my pool (which I don't have)
> >
> > -Gunther
> >
> >
> > --
> > Gunther Schadow, M.D., Ph.D.
> gschadow@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Associate Professor           Indiana University School of
> Informatics
> > Regenstrief Institute, Inc.      Indiana University School of
> Medicine
> > tel:1(317)423-5521
> http://aurora.regenstrief.org
> >
> >
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