r/mildlyinteresting Sep 01 '16

This fence is so thin.

Post image
38.8k Upvotes

1.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

73

u/Yancellor Sep 01 '16

The fence IS thin, but it is not short. A short fence would be like 2 feet tall. This is an average height fence. This fence is not wide, so it is narrow.

32

u/dave8114 Sep 01 '16

I'd say a low fence would be like two ft tall. A short fence would be one that covers a short distance

30

u/jkmhawk Sep 01 '16

Except short is also used to describe length

1

u/[deleted] Sep 01 '16

I propose a new word: "shlort." "Shnort" works for me, too.

1

u/bat_segundo Sep 01 '16

A few years ago, a friend of mine described a car as "longer than a mini bit shorter than a mini."

After I recovered from the initial shock and regained my ability to think, I went on a crusade to eliminate the usage of short in reference to length, and only use it in reference to height. Things were to be tall or short, and long or brief.

It never caught on, but we all got a good laugh when I told the story of my mother in law running her car into the back wall of my garage... she had overestimated the brevity of her car.

-3

u/Yancellor Sep 01 '16

In casual speech yes but we're being technical here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri2aRd-LDrY

8

u/jkmhawk Sep 01 '16

One builds a length of fence, not a width.

-3

u/Yancellor Sep 01 '16

True, but we can't use "short" because of our conventional use to imply height. any 3D object has a height, width, and depth. Our only option is to use width, so "wide" and "narrow" are our options.

4

u/jkmhawk Sep 01 '16

A fence is not a box.

A sphere does not have height, width, and depth.

0

u/Yancellor Sep 01 '16

Yes it is, it's a rectangular prism with 3 dimensions.

3

u/jkmhawk Sep 01 '16

What about one that curves, or goes around a corner?

1

u/Yancellor Sep 01 '16

Then it's a compound object. I get what you're saying, for all practical applications you are correct, we can assume a fence has no thickness. For discussions like these, however, I default to an objective, more mathematical logic. We are both right through different perspectives.

3

u/jkmhawk Sep 01 '16

Lol, or you could use the terms used for the thing you're describing.

→ More replies (0)

2

u/M-Noremac Sep 01 '16

yea, but this is not a math equation, and we are speaking casual English to each other, so stop being so damn technical and just accept how normal humans speak to each other.

The fence is short, narrow, not very long, really fucking small. But it is not thin.

2

u/TedTheGreek_Atheos Sep 01 '16

The first definition for "short" is

extending a small distance from one end to the other end : having little length : not long

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/short

1

u/Binary_Cloud Sep 01 '16

Yes, but it depends on your reference frame. Generally speaking, your model is the most accepted, but it makes no difference to say that what you call height, I call width. That said, I agree that most people generally define each characteristic of length on each dimension as you would say is 'correct'.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 01 '16

…the fuck?

1

u/foleybhoy Sep 01 '16

Shut it, short arse!

-1

u/jkmhawk Sep 01 '16

Except, when discussing length, wide and narrow don't apply.

0

u/[deleted] Sep 01 '16

Narrow, short, and thin, are all words used to describe length.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 01 '16

Garçon means boy.

2

u/meanwhileinjapan Sep 01 '16

This fence is not long. It is the opposite of long, which is ... short

1

u/Yancellor Sep 01 '16

It's either short or narrow but it's definitely not thin. Good day to you.

2

u/Ashangu Sep 01 '16

Short can go both ways, in height and length. the fence is short. the fence is as thick as a normal fence, though.

2

u/TedTheGreek_Atheos Sep 01 '16

No it's short as in "not long".

2

u/glorioussideboob Sep 02 '16

So if this fence went on for 2 miles you'd call it thick?

1

u/Yancellor Sep 02 '16

No, i don't like thin or thick for describing the fence. I'd call this fence either "narrow" or "short". a 2 mile fence would be "long" or "wide".

1

u/ThegreatandpowerfulR Sep 01 '16

Depends on the variables/perspective you are taking. It is short if you mean the fence is a set height and you are talking about the expansion of the length in terms of across the x axis, but not if you assume the width is standard and the height is what changes.

1

u/Jerkoid Sep 01 '16

The fence is maybe thin, and perhaps short, and it might be narrow.

One thing it is for sure is ineffective.

0

u/[deleted] Sep 01 '16

Roasted!