Re: vibrating bar supported by light string to reduce damping

[John Denker <jsd@AV8N.COM>]

Ludwik Kowalski wrote:
> An author does not argue with a referee (about a request
> like this)  when he wants the paper to be published.

Yes and no.

Hans Bethe liked to give this advice:  "The referee is always
right.  That's because if the referee is too %@+# dumb to
understand what you've written, a significant fraction of the
readership will also be too %@#+ dumb to understand it."

But there are limits.  If I use Newton's law in the form F=ma
and the referee thinks it should be F=ma^2, I'm going to argue.
Similarly, for an idea that is well-attested in pre-antiquity,
you shouldn't go looking for an appropriate reference to "recent
TPT" articles.

Also note that I didn't suggest or expect that arguing would
be necessary!  Re-read what I said:  in this situation I would
offer to put in a footnote about prehistoric idiophones if
the editor thought it was appropriate.  And I was 100% sincere
about that.  I don't think such a footnote adds much, but it
doesn't hurt either, and whichever way the editor and/or referee
decide on this narrow question, I'm not going to argue about it.