MyBB Community Forums

(2011-12-04, 08:40 AM)Tom K. Wrote: [ -> ]Ok, in a vacuum my statement is correct either way there is not "half full"

No, in a vacuum it can be half filled. It has a maximum capacity. Say 1 Litre. If you have exactly 0.5 Litre then it is at half of its maximum capacity. So it is half full. How full a container is, is not boolean

Question for all: How many hours do you dedicate to internet ?

(2011-12-04, 05:27 PM)Yaldaram Wrote: [ -> ]Question for all: How many hours do you dedicate to internet ?

Erm, personal or professional? I work online quite often, so sometimes I'm on for 10+ hours a day...

(2011-12-03, 09:53 PM)Tom K. Wrote: [ -> ]

(2011-12-03, 09:38 PM)Aristotle Wrote: [ -> ]@All staff, Which is correct?

Is the glass half full, half empty, the wrong size, or a free drink?

Explain why you pick which.

Although I'm not staff, I'd say neither. You cant have a door that's half open or half closed, if it is anything but closed, it is open. Full and empty (like open and closed) are two opposite absolute states. On or off, true or false, open or closed, empty or full, dark or light, positive or negative. Same difference

(2011-12-04, 08:40 AM)Tom K. Wrote: [ -> ]Ok, in a vacuum my statement is correct either way there is not "half full"

I don't quite agree with your statement. If you fill up a cylindrical glass with liquid water (lets assume this experiment is under STP conditions) to the exact half way mark (where the water consumes exactly half of the cylinder's volume), you will see that it indeed can be seen as half empty and or half full.

Before I get into more detail on it, we need to clarify on what we mean by half full or half empty. The term "half full" (in this case) refers to the cylinder as being filled with liquid water to exactly half its volume. This coincides with the term "half empty," which refers to the cylinder having half its volume not containing liquid water. Since we have two halves, one containing liquid water and one not, the cylinder can be given both attributes (properties) that it is indeed both half full and half empty [half full of liquid water, and half empty of liquid water]. You can think of it as taking to halves of the volume of the cylinder (pi(r^2)h/2) and adding them together to get the entire volume of the cylinder.

Consider the graphic below (ignore my terrible color selections except the fact that the blue gradient is the water in the cylinder, and the color white in the cylinder is air. The cylinder is being portrayed as a 2d object outlined by the grey"ish" border.)

[attachment=24922]

I went ahead and labeled the line that crosses the half way mark of the cylinder horizontally as the origin and as "x". The vertical half way mark is labeled "y".

From the origin to the top of the cylinder, it is exactly half of the cylinder (let's label it a), and from the origin to the bottom of the cylinder (let's label it b), it again, is exactly half of the height of the cylinder*. Since "a" and "b" are two halves, "a" containing liquid water and "b" not containing liquid water, the cylinder is again, half full and half empty (of liquid water).

Even if the cylinder was in a vacuum and was filled exactly half with water, you would still have the half empty / half full scenario.

* Ignoring the fact that my graphic is .5 pixels off from the "halfway" mark. Assume the origin crosses the exact halfway mark, without any thickness.

All the best,
Imad Jomaa.

@Imad: Nice long winded way of saying exactly what I said

(2011-12-04, 06:19 PM)Dylan M. Wrote: [ -> ]@Imad: Nice long winded way of saying exactly what I said

You didn't have yours posted when I started mine.

What you showed was a "glass filled half way" NOT "half full". You can't have an answer that is both true and false. Unless the glass is a quantum particle

Full/Empty = True/False



As said, "full" is an absolute state.

However, if you were to say you can be "half full". We should look at this like the Schrodinger's cat thought experiment (see: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schrödinger's_cat ).
If the glass is in the process or being emptied then the glass is "half empty", if the glass is being filled the glass is "half full". From within the system you could make an accurate observation, but from outside of the system, you would be unable to determine the state. So from a quantum point of view, the glass is both half full and half empty

(2011-12-04, 07:36 PM)Tom K. Wrote: [ -> ]What you showed was a "glass filled half way" NOT "half full". You can't have an answer that is both true and false...

I think I understand what you're saying, but whether the glass has undergone the process of being filled or not, the end result is the status of it being "full." In our case, the glass remains full of liquid water of half of its volume, despite it undergoing the process of being filled to the half way mark or not. What I mean is, if you isolate the cause rather than connect the cause and effect, you are left with a glass half full of liquid water, which makes it half full of liquid water, and half empty of liquid water. In other words, one half of the glass' volume is of liquid water and one half of it is not. It's like having a piece of paper with half of it shaded and half of it not. Half of it would be indeed shaded and half of it would indeed be not.

All the best,
Imad Jomaa.

That is true, apart from the fact that its "half filled with water", not "hlaf full" Half full is not grmatically correct, as f"full" is an absolute state, just like true.

(2011-12-04, 08:55 PM)Tom K. Wrote: [ -> ] That is true, apart from the fact that its "half filled with water", not "hlaf full" Half full is not grmatically correct, as f"full" is an absolute state, just like true.

I would like you to clarify what you mean by "absolute state." As for grammatically correct or incorrect, you could be right. I do want to point out however, "half-full" is a dictionary word. While dictionaries are just reports, it is worth noting. Outside of grammar however, half of a maximum that can be held is still half of a maximum nonetheless.

All the best,
Imad Jomaa.