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Post by Pete on Jun 21, 2008 19:45:29 GMT
Point taken, Paul. I agree with you.
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Post by Geoff on Jun 22, 2008 4:58:31 GMT
All of that said, I accept also that some of these expressions have effectively entered the vernacular, including PIN number. It is as though people have lost sight of what the letters P I N stood for and have developed a new noun, the PIN, which can have a number, the PIN number associated with it. I can't help thinking that's what has happened to AC and DC. We don' refer only to AC current and DC current, we also speak of AC voltage and DC voltage. I think it would be unusual to speak of alternating voltage (or alternating current voltage) and, more specifically, direct voltage (or direct current voltage) to describe, respectively, voltage that is varying sinusoidally and voltage that has been rectified and smoothed. In the electrical/electronics world, I believe the 'initials' AC and DC have a meaning of their own, in the same way as do PIN and ATM in our everyday world.
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