But this can lead on to other unanswerable questions, and a fruitful discussion on the use and misuse of language. For instance:
How small is minute?
Linguistic fall-out:
1. Category error - using a pun to change the direction of the question. Philosophical implications: G E Moore's attack upon the logical argument for Hedonism - pleasure is desired, therefore it is desirable - showing that the first use of the root desire is descriptive (and even tautological, since the fact of pleasure and that of something being desirable are intextricably woven into the meaning of each other), whereas the second use is normative or prescriptive. And, as all the philosophers tell you, you cannot turn an
is into an
ought.
2. A minute would currently be defined not as a unit of time, but as 60 seconds. Max, I think, used that to equate it to a unit of distance, given the speed of light
in vacuo as the standard. My understanding, however, is that it is not the distance travelled by light that is the standard, but the number of waves of a particular colour of light (emitted by a defined substance at a precise quantum state) that counts. Anyone here have more information on this one?
Whilst not wishing to roll around in the gutter again, I might suggest that the biggest discrepancies in definitions of a monute may well be in regard to two partners' perceptions of the length of time the sex took - by the classical joke format, a woman's minute would be a man's hour.
cheer
the sunshine warrior
