non-6-sided dice > number cubes

[Joel S. Berson]

That should be "Of course," of course.  My fingers aren't warmed up
this early in the morning.

At 10/25/2007 09:55 AM, you wrote:
>At 10/25/2007 08:55 AM, ronbutters at AOL.COM wrote:
>>Wouldn't a four-sided cube have to be made up of two-sided squares?
>
>Of 4 triangles.  Just as a seven-sided cube would have to be made up
>not of square faces.
>
>If course a four-sided cube won't woll wery well.  (IIRC, there was
>some long time ago a learned article on this subject.)
>
>Joel
>
>>Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>>
>>Date:         Wed, 24 Oct 2007 22:34:35
>>To:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>Subject:      Re: [ADS-L] non-6-sided dice > number cubes
>>
>>
>> >I learned today from a fellow editor that in some school texbooks,
>> >dice are called "number cubes" even when they have pips rather than
>> >digits. Not so surprising, I suppose, given the kind of influences
>> >school texts tend to suffer under (referring to a "disabled car" can
>> >be a no-no, as can be talking about tranquillizing a bear -- because
>> >that refers to drugs). But non-cubic dice are also being called
>> >"number cubes," even in math textbooks. After one editor mentioned
>> >she was faced with "four-sided number cube" in a teacher's guide for
>> >a math course and was not allowed to change it, I found the following
>> >at http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/2004/5/04.05.10.x.html :
>> >
>> >"John was tossing a 4-sided number cube numbered 1-4 and a 7-sided
>> >number cube numbered 1-7."
>> >
>> >Note that this is a sample problem for teaching math. The page in
>> >question begins with the following sentence: "Words and their
>> >meanings may present the greatest obstacle to mathematical problem
>> >solving for students." However, the reference to 4-side and 7-sided
>> >number cubes is not being used as an illustration of problematic word
>> >usage.
>> >
>>Maybe it's not necessarily the apparent endorsement of gambling
>>that's being avoided but rather the problem of figuring out whether
>>the singular of "dice" is really "die".  Well, as Caesar used to say,
>>the number cube is cast.
>>
>>LH
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org