I agree...but (you knew there would be a but)...

Besides my not being able to ignore mistakes in thoughts, language, punctuation, whatever...I feel like sometimes you are criticizing me, (because I'm well-steeped in science) when actually you just misunderstand what I'm saying. And you do have a way of speaking in an unconventional way. I don't think it's fair to expect people to understand your words when they are not always precise. It's possible to express your ideas with precision and clarity, where we can all agree or disagree, but at least be on the same page discussing the same thing.

***thread drift***

My dad was in a terrible accident and in intensive care for 5 weeks. We didn't know it at the time, but he was having mild seizures. As he tried to communicate with people, he became extremely frustrated when they didn't understand him. Once he asked for a "duck," and when all the nurses rolled their eyes thinking he was out of his head, he became very frustrated. As family members we knew his propensity for unusual ways of expressing his ideas, and we knew he wanted a drink of water. He also spoke of horses and nightmares which none of us understood until later.

My point -- no one person can completely read another person's mind and understand what they mean. (Even though my husband thinks I should be able to "know" he means left when he says right, etc.) Precise language is the best we have for communicating. And as I've said before math is the best language. Science uses math a lot to express ideas. Scientists are not the "bean counters" you describe. (lets pick on accountants or managers or anybody not like me) ;-)

In our problem about velocity and acceleration above -- calculus gave us a way to talk about the change of a change. (acceleration is changing velocity, and John pointed out that an integration yields the distance formula) We can frustrate each other for days trying to use words to express this, but a mathematical expression is clear, and really isn't that hard to understand.

******

It's late here. I have to stay a chapter ahead of the math student I'm tutoring tomorrow. 'nite.