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Re: OT: coins and currency (was: [Theory] Types of numerals)

From:Tristan McLeay <conlang@...>
Date:Saturday, January 7, 2006, 23:54
Mark J. Reed wrote:
> On 1/7/06, Tim May <butsuri@...> wrote: > >>I'm not sure what distinction you're making between "rectangular" and >>"oblong"; the two words are effectively synonymous to me. > > > Rectangular objects have corners; oblong ones don't. The > archetypical oblong shape is a circle cut in half and extended via > straight lines between the previously-connected endpoints of the > semicircles; the result is not an ellipse, but a different form of > "stretched circle".
I would've called that an oval, even if it isn't proper. The "proper" definitions I learnt for rectangle vs oblong is that a rectangle is a four-sided shape with the angles being 90 degrees, whereas an oblong is a rectangle where two sides are of different lengths to two others. (A square is a rectangle with all sides equal.) No-one uses these definitions normally, when a rectangle is an oblong and no-one talks of oblongs. -- Tristan.

Replies

Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>
Tim May <butsuri@...>