When is the forward sail a genoa, and when is it a jib?

[Lakesailor]

Or foresail

No, I don't say that, I just say headsail.

 

[savageseadog]

No, I don't say that, I just say headsail.

You've heard of foreskin haven't you? I haven't heard of headskin.

 

[Twister_Ken]

So how do you define a vacuum, then? When my research apparatus, back in the 1960s, included a "hard" vacuum (mechanical pump followed by diffusion pump) I thought I was creating a vacuum, but nowhere as good as outer space, solar wind notwithstanding...

Mike.

Dunno, I'm a words man, not a scientist.

However, any decent sea-level vacuum would have to be in a sealed container. The thread's 'partial vacuum' is not, it's just an open area of slightly lower pressure caused by accelerating the airstream.

 

[Hydrozoan]

Dunno, I'm a words man, not a scientist ...

Fair enough, but you did say "A pedant speaks" before contending very firmly that "... there is no such thing as a partial vacuum ... A vacuum either is or isn't ..."

mjcoon and I are pointing out that all vacuums known to us are partial vacuums, except for that ideal, absolute vacuum which we can conceive in our minds but never encounter or make. Indeed, you now contradict your original assertions by writing "any decent ... vacuum" with its implication that there are 'less than decent' ones. However, whilst refuting your original contentions, I will readily agree with you as a 'words man' that 'area of reduced pressure' is more usual usage than 'partial vacuum' for an unconstrained volume at slightly lower pressure than atmospheric - and hope that we have now exhausted this particular bell jar!

A post script. Speaking of exhausting bell jars has reminded me of that luminous painting "An Experiment on a Bird in an Air Pump" by Joseph Wright (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Experiment_on_a_Bird_in_the_Air_Pump#mediaviewer/File:An_Experiment_on_a_Bird_in_an_Air_Pump_by_Joseph_Wright_of_Derby,_1768.jpg) though it is sad to think that the bird's life should have been risked (or lost?) for a mere demonstration - a reaction that the artist heightens with his portrayal of the reactions of the children.

 

[ProMariner]

Can't we all just agree: FRONT sail. Simple. Descriptive. Accurate. Curse all this pointless, arcane, *******ised 'nautical' mumbo jumbo, it convinces nobody.

 

[Lakesailor]

You've heard of foreskin haven't you? I haven't heard of headskin.

You are talking about dicks.

My response was related to the sails. But you suggested another term. Except, that is not what I say. I say "headsail".

You can say what you like.