Re: Lojban ML: Syllogism and sophism

[Herman Miller <hmiller@IO.COM>]

On Thu, 9 Apr 1998 02:27:33 -0400, Logical Language Group
<lojbab@ACCESS.DIGEX.NET> wrote:

>>The best translation for the property "mass" in my opinion is
>>{le ka grake}, having mass is having "gramness".
>
>That is indeed A concept of mass -  but I would clarify "gramness" as =
the
>property of being measureable in grams.  Yet I would presume that energy
>could also be measured in grams using c squared as a conversion, so this=
 is
>not the essence of "mass" which classically is seen as a measurement of
>matter.  "marji" is "matter" which among other thinsg seems to have =
composition
>to ever finer levels of analysis.  And "mass" is the degree/amount to =
which a
>substance has/is composed of matter, on an open-ended scale.  As I said,
>this is one of the paradigm-formers that I use to conceive of "ni".  No
>doubt this means you can/will try to tear holes in it %^).  But to me
>everything measureable is a "ni" of something.  Usually, though, we find=
 it
>easier toget "ni" from what are in English , adjectives.  e.g. clani -> =
long
>ni clani -> length; slabu ->old, ni slabu -> age.  If marji is =
considered as
>an adjective, it seems to me that ni marji must be "mass".

Another interpretation of ni marji might be "amount of matter measured in
moles" (molro, not kakpymabru :) ).  Alternative ways of conceiving the
idea of mass might include "ni muvdu fapro" (amount of resistance to
motion; inertial mass) or possibly something like "ni te junta"? (amount =
of
gravitational field) (I think I prefer "ni muvdu fapro").