Re: solution

[desperance]

Okay, here it is, then. How can Chaz conceivably lie still and listen to someone saying "three or less", and not scream in outrage?

The answer is that I think - I think (but am very open to correction on this) - that he was right to say so.

Okay, this is how it was. I was lying still and listening to the radio: ergo, I was in bed. Ergo, it was late night or early morning. What happens on Radio 4, late night and early morning? Yes, O my beloved 'earers: the shipping forecast.

This was a measurement of wind, on the Beaufort scale. He said - as it might be - "German Bight, northeast veering easterly, three or less," and I assert that he was right to do so. You couldn't possibly say "three or fewer," when you're talking about the strength of the wind. Could you...?

Comments

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

If you're counting, it's "3 or fewer." If you're reading numbers off a dial, it's "3 or less." The dial implies a continuum.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

wind speed is continuous value (there are infinitely many speeds between 10mph and 11mph)

It's my view that the Beaufort scale is just markers along the way, in much the same way that there are mile markers along the road.

So when you see a road sign saying "30 miles to Birmingham", and a few moments later someone asks if there is far to go, you can say "less than 30 miles" rather than "fewer than 30 miles", and similarly you can say "three or less" for the wind scale.

So I agree entirely!

[jeremy-m.livejournal.com]

It may depend on whether you see the Beaufort scale as a set of positive integers or of real numbers. If the only possibilities "less" than three are in fact two, one and zero, I'd be back to fewer.

But if it's a real (or indeed complex when the imaginary wind blows sideways) scale and there are an infinite number of possibilities between two and three, it may be OK to see 2.123456789.... as "less" than 3. But it's so easy to become irrational about such things.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Heh. I should have thought of the shipping forecast!

And yes, that has to be right; I leave it to you to devise the rule that explains why it should be so, I only speak this stuff.