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Most experiments are performed in labs



I have searched in vain during the past several weeks for a message on this
list in which the word "lab" was used with its correct meaning.

I know that most readers will dismiss my objection as a nitpick from the
depths of geezerhood, but I have mounted a crusade in my classes to convince
my students to consider how their message will be interpreted and be
unambiguous in their word usage. I am not easily deterred in this
Quixote-esque effort, and it often spills over into my social and
professional intercourse.

I point out to my students that their meaning is often misinterpreted
because the English words they use mean different things to different folks.
As physicists, we should try, therefore, to avoid such ambiguities and
misunderstandings by agreeing that specific words have one and only one
meaning. I have included an eight-page glossary in my lab experiments
textbook to assist the students (and other faculty) in this endeavor.

The word "lab" is a case in point. It appears to be almost universally used
nowadays by both students and faculty to mean "experiment." We all will
agree, I trust, that an experiment is an investigation of the relationship
between variable quantities conducted by accurately measuring values of the
quantities as they change in time or place. Experiments are usually
performed in a laboratory.

Calling an experiment a "lab" reflects careless word usage and sets a bad
example to our students. If we call what we are performing a "lab," what,
then, do we call the room we are performing it in?

Some will say that this trend is due to laziness; we are simply using a
one-syllable word rather than a four-syllable word. Others claim that such
concerns are out of place in informal communications such as on Phys-L,
Physhare, and Tap-L. But I lean toward the view that it is really a sign of
imprecise thinking, and of not considering the impact of poor word usage in
informal as well as formal writing.

God knows I am not a language person in Dave Barry's league. English was one
of my least appreciated courses in college. But many years of grading
student papers, along with a stint of editing manuscripts submitted for
publication, has convinced me that we must pay more attention to it.

Since the English teachers in our schools cannot get the job done by
themselves, those of us who care about accurate communication must leap in
and help guide our students toward better word usage and better spelling.
And as always, we ourselves learn more when we teach a subject than we ever
do as students.

The down side of this is that questionable syntax and poor spelling in notes
from our contemporaries tend to jump out at us, to the detriment of their
message.

End of sermon..

Paul O. Johnson