#94812
02/07/2003 10:38 AM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Telemetry is a term that has been used extensively in the reports of the Columbia explosion.
There's this from MW on telemeter:
"Main Entry: 2telemeter
Date: 1925
transitive senses : to transmit (as the measurement of a quantity) by telemeter"
Will someone explain this term in more depth?
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#94813
02/07/2003 11:04 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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It must mean "measuring from a distance" since tele- means from a distance, and -metry is measuring. I haven't really been reading the Columbia reports; do they use it in reference to say, the sensors on the shuttle which were reporting data to Mission Control? That would make sense.
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#94814
02/07/2003 11:06 AM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Yes, Bean. That's how they're using it. The term comes up in every single report I've listened to.
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#94815
02/07/2003 11:19 AM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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Conceptually, it's the difference between, say, the cop using a radar gun to measure your speed (that would be telemetry) or you looking at your speedometer, which is a mechanical sensor giving a readout only to you, aboard the car. Y'know? Edit: I know what's coming next. PLEASE don't ask if there's an opposite!!!!!!  
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#94816
02/07/2003 12:17 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
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It's really sad, replying to myself. But it makes sense for threaded types.
We use the term "satellite telemetry" as a catch-all for different oceanographic measurements made by satellites. Obviously the satellites themselves are nowhere near the ocean. But they can and do measure temperature and sea surface height.
Another tele- word (aside from obvious ones like television or telephone) is teletherapy. This refers to "treatment from a distance", which means, in radiotherapy, treatment by linear accelerators and that sort of thing. The radioactive "source" is at some distance from the patient. In contrast, there are treatments where radioactive material is put in close contact with the cancer. This is called brachytherapy and what the heck brachy- means, I don't remember, because I've read more than one conflicting explanation, and I don't own the right sort of dictionary to check it myself.
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#94817
02/07/2003 12:21 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Bean,
From an online medical dictionary, I found this on 'brachy':
"brachy- (brachy-) [Gr. brachys short] a combining form meaning short."
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#94818
02/07/2003 12:51 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Edit: I know what's coming next. PLEASE don't ask if there's an opposite!!!!!! ROTFLMAO! oops, excuse me. ahem: That was hilarious, Bean. 
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#94819
02/07/2003 12:55 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Until Faldage or someone equally positioned comes along to splain this to us, all I can do is offer one of my favorite verbs:
brachiate - to swing from branch to branch using the arms.
It probably has nothing to do with the above 'brachy' since I'm assuming it comes from the Latin for 'arm,' but.
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#94820
02/07/2003 1:16 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
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See, I thought it was related to branches too (think of brachioles - isn't the the branchy part of the lungs?).
The reason I thought that is that one method used has small radioactive sources are attached to the ends of sort-of "wires" (I can't remember the name). (Imagine it kind of like a vacuum cleaner cord, with the plug end being a radioactive source.) The person to be treated has catheters inserted in the treatment area, and for the treatments, the sources are run through the catheters, sit in position next to the cancer (at locations predetermined by your friendly neighbourhood medical physicists) and then retract back into the machine where they spend most of their time.
Anyway, with these branches with sources on the end going into the patient, I thought brachy- made sense. However, there are other types of brachytherapy where (smaller strength) sources are inserted directly and permanently into the patient. No branches involved.
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#94821
02/07/2003 1:20 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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So, Bean, can you make the brachy- = short connection?
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#94822
02/07/2003 1:30 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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The brachy in brachytherapy is from the Greek. The unrelated brach- in brachiate is from the Latin.
So, I suppose, the opposite of telemetry would be brachymetry. reading a honkin' big zero T on the googlometerŪ.
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#94823
02/07/2003 1:55 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
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Yeah, I can now see the brachy- = short thing. Now I wonder - how are the Latin and Greek words related? How did brachy- go from meaning "short" to meaning "branch"?
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#94824
02/07/2003 1:59 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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It *doesn't mean "branch"! It means "arm"! [pout]
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#94825
02/07/2003 2:22 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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How did brachy- go from meaning "short" to meaning "branch" (Ed. note: arm, not branch. See the lovely ASp's comment) My knee jerk reaction was that they weren't related at all, but. Here's the whole merry story http://www.bartleby.com/61/roots/IE331.html
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#94826
02/07/2003 2:44 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Short arms, not! At least in the case of the brachiosaurus that had long arms.
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#94827
02/07/2003 2:48 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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It came to mean arm in general and lost its meaning of shortness. One of those shifts in meaning that we see from time to time. The arms of brachiating apes (e.g., the gibbon) are far from short, often being longer than the legs.
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#94828
02/07/2003 3:03 PM
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Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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One of the earliest examples of "telemetry" was the stock market tickertape, that told bankers
and other investors what the stock market was doing. It was punched onto paper tape. When
Lindberg in an open car was driven down Fifth Avenue, thousands of yards of tickertape was
thrown out the windows of the building and draped all over his car. Supposed to be an honor,
a substitute for flowers, I guess.
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#94829
02/08/2003 2:47 AM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 872
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Telemetry: Data received electronically from a spacecraft during flight. Telemetry informs ground control about the condition of the crew and various critical parts and functions of the spacecraft.
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#94830
02/12/2003 1:49 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 866
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Hiya Bean old gal - still freezin?
Hadn't heard of teletherapy before. From what range is the therapy applied?
An allied term I struck on Day 1 in this job was telemedicine. Various scans and X-rays transmitted from site to a doctor by satellite for a remote diagnosis.
Hey - can you email me with details of how you tracked your PhD fish? Presumably it was via satellite? Does Inmarsat D+ ring any bells for you? (Satellite tracking and telemetry service I'm interested in).
Cheers
stales
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#94831
02/12/2003 5:51 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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The teletherapy I know about involve placing little radioactive pellets directly on the area being treated.
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#94832
02/12/2003 6:09 PM
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Posts: 1,156
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The teletherapy I know about involve placing little radioactive pellets directly on the area being treated.
I think you must mean brachytherapy here. Or radiotherapy (includes tele- and brachy- therapy and is a general term meaning treatment with ionizing radiation)?
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#94833
02/12/2003 6:46 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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tele- brachy- What's the diff? :~
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#94834
02/12/2003 8:42 PM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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#94835
02/12/2003 9:12 PM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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>tele- brachy- What's the diff?
as a gloss, tele- <> distant & bracy- <> short
-ron o.
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#94836
02/12/2003 9:19 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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tele- <> distant & brac[h]y- <> short
Duh!
Welcome to the Chasm of Sar
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#94837
02/12/2003 9:22 PM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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>Welcome to the Chasm of Sar
which is the general locale of ron's world..
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#94838
02/13/2003 6:47 AM
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Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 555
addict
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addict
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Teletherapy: is radiation deleivered externally to the patient using a linear accelaerator
Brachytherapy: is radiation delivered internally, directly at the site of the tumour using radiation sources such as pellets or seeds.
The prefixes, 'Tele' and 'Brachy' are applied here, to the distance of the source of the radiation from the target tumour.
Tele - long distance - external radiation, applied from afar
Brachy - short distance - internal radiation applied directly on site
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#94839
02/13/2003 6:54 AM
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Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 555
addict
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addict
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telemedicine. Various scans and X-rays transmitted from site to a doctor by satellite for a remote diagnosis.
Telemedicine is more generic, Stales. Refers to general medical consultations irrespective of specialisations, primarily developed for remote area medical accesss and second opinions. Teleradiology would refer specifically to the transmission of radiologic data such as X-rays, CT and MR scans and the like, for the same purposes.
Incidentally, my introduction to this board was with a rant on the rapid commercialisation of these fields.
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