I'm puzzled by the use of the above word by automobile parts sales people. Why to they now refer to the eponymous part of a disc brake system NOT a disc, but a rotor?

Another auto term conundrum: Here in the USA folks refer to the part of a car that dampens spring oscillations a shock absorber, yet it's the spring itself that does that.

Yet another oddity: Tell folks here that an exhaust driven turbine driving another turbine in the air inlet a supercharger and they'll swear it's not a supercharger. They'll swear that a "turbocharger" doesn't supercharge incoming air.


Does anyone have an esplanation for these auto-anamolies?

Imprecise definitions, all of them.

I think - speaking as an educated laymen - that it's the attached dashpot that dampens the vibrations, transmitted to them by the connected springs. (Don't ask why it's called a dashpot, or whether I've used the term correctly ...)

The rotor in the brake is indeed a disc, and it goes around and around like a rotor, as opposed to the stationary (but not immobile) calipers that clamp against the spinning rotor to slow it down. So you're both right.

You say to-MAY-to...

I have an explanation. Language isn't logic. Why, when I am pressing buttons on my phone to call someone am I "dialling" a number? And why when it goes buzz buzz or beep beep is it "ringing". Why is a square area for boxing called a "ring"? Why, as I mentioned elsewhere, doesn't "preposterous" just mean "now"?

All these things have actual explanations, often historical, but the overall explanation is just "language doesn't have to be logical".

What I find weird is that the more logical terms HAVE been used in the past.

As for "rotor," the namesake part of a drum brake also rotates, but it's still called a drum. Go figure.

As for "dial," I still have a dial phone. It doesn't work anymore. )****&%$#@~!)* progress!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Geoff,

Brakes are fraught with jargon; you will recall that what presses on the drum is a shoe. Or maybe a pad.

Ah, technology. My parents had one of the first automatic record-changers, from before they put fillers on Side Ten when Isaac Stern's recording of the Beethoven Violin Concerto took 45 minutes = 9 twelve-inch sides. The tenth side was just a pretty pattern with a groove that went from outer edge in about six revolutions to an inner oval (to trigger the change mechanism) in case you forgot to remove that last, blank side when you turned over the stack. Must have been 1944 or so. And inside the back cover was the smug remark "Your RCA Victor records deserve the finest. Buy RCA Victor needles - package of 60, $1.00."

Nowadays virtually no teenager has even seen a CD...

I know that it makes me a ridiculous old stick in the mud but when I buy something I like there to exist - physically exist - something that I bought. I like there to be something I can see, pick up, hold. No matter how good the music a download always feels like someone has sold me a suit of invisible clothes.

quote:

"Your RCA Victor records deserve the finest. Buy RCA Victor needles - package of 60, $1.00."

Love it, Hab. It kinda reminds me of Apple always telling us we should buy their plugs and cords. And it's true, I think. Shu buys cheap ones from Amazon and within a month, they no longer work.