Anti-collision particle physics
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From the Temu website.
They're the kind of bumper buttons you put on cabinet doors or sometimes on the bottoms of fragile things. IKEA furniture used to come with a couple of these. Just peel and stick in the corner so cabinet doors don't slam.
Selected readings
- "'These can be aptly compared with the challenges, problems, and insights of particle physics'" (6/24/08)
- "'High-energy linguistics'?" (8/29/22)
- "Neutral Xi_b^star, Xi(b)^{*0}, Ξb*0, whatever" (4/28/12)
- "ChatGPT: Theme and Variations" (2/21/23)
- "From wraith to smoking duck" (7/5/12)
- — and many other posts, which all go to prove that "particle physics" has a special flavor
[Thanks to Victor Steinbok]
Dave J. said,
March 6, 2023 @ 8:51 pm
I’m sorry if I’m dense, but what do those Temu buttons have to do with language, linguistics, or particle physics??
AntC said,
March 7, 2023 @ 12:42 am
(Explaining it will kill the humour.)
Clear Anti-collision Particle is the website's product description. As VHM says, those might usually be called 'bumper buttons' or 'anti-bump buttons'.
"Collision" and "particle" usually only appear together in context of Physics: Brownian motion, sub-atomic particles, particle accelerator/collider, etc.
What does it have to do with linguistics? An inappropriate collocation of terms.
What does it have to do with Language? Almost certainly that's a result of a bad translation.
What does it have to do with Physics? Nothing. Which is rather the point.
Laura Morland said,
March 7, 2023 @ 3:02 am
@ AntC, your explanation was so elegant and witty that it didn't kill the humo(u)r at all!
Laura Morland said,
March 7, 2023 @ 3:06 am
P.S. Just had a second look at the ad, and I continue to be amused.
Whether they be "inappropriately termed" or no, who would need 100 of these "anti-collision particles" at one go? Unless you're assembling 25 IKEA cabinets in one blow.
Jerry Packard said,
March 7, 2023 @ 8:51 am
I don’t know; it seems I need a whole bunch of them to protect the cabinet doors in my kitchen!
Eric said,
March 7, 2023 @ 12:36 pm
Well, when you're dealing with something as small as a particle, you can never have too many!
Dave J. said,
March 7, 2023 @ 1:54 pm
@ AntC — Now I get it. Haha (I think).
unekdoud said,
March 11, 2023 @ 4:21 am
I think I'm subconsciously processing this as "anti-particle collision", which could be orders of magnitude more or less risky depending on the context.
Something more physicist-appropriate for a (clear) anti-collision particle might be a neutrino, but that also makes it basically impossible to get 100 of them in the mail to attach to your furniture.