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Re: Partial pressures

And the color, temp., class too? O, B, A, F, G, ....

Yes, and we also call the hot ones "early types" and the
cooler ones "late types" as though they represent different
stages in the evolution of a common object, as was once
believed*.

Could this be an argument for prescriptive grammar also?

I've always maintained that it is, but I'm told "You can't
stop progress." I sure wish I could. Advocates of greater
grammatical freedom choose to celebrate the beauty in the
ambiguity of imprecise language or else they resign to the
"inevitability of change".

Leigh

(Sorry, Bernard. I'm feeling extra curmudgeonly today.)

* See, for example, "The Age of the Stars" by E. U. Condon
in the Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. v. 11, No. 2, pp 125-130 (1925)