“Broad surface” or “large surface” [closed]

Question

When comparing the total surface area of (geometrical) bodies, can I describe it as "large surface" (or "largest") or, as an editor suggested, do I have to use "broad surface"?

Edit:

Example sentence from the article: "Porous, spongy grains provide a large surface for chemical reactions but might hinder the release of the newly formed species into the gas phase."

Another example:

"Additionally, the significantly larger dust surface in the XX and YY model lead to ..."

here XX and YY denote dust models with differen dust size distributions and accordingly with different total surface area of the grains.

The editor suggested to replace large by broad.

Answer 1

A broad surface is one where one dimension (side) is particularly large compared to the other. A rectangle with one side much more than the other is a broad surface (breadth: units of linear measure).

By contrast, a large surface is one where both the dimensions (sides) are more than usual such that it has a large area (area: units of square measure).

In the specific case, total surface area depends on both the sides, and as such it would be referred to as a large surface.

Answer 2

"Broad" is a context-dependent word. It describes the size of an object along one axis or direction. But which direction depends on what you're looking at. Many things have an implicit ordering of dimensions.

• A river is long, from its source to the sea. But it can be narrow or broad depending on the distance from one shore to the opposite shore.
• Similarly, a street is only broad from one sidewalk to the other sidewalk. You cannot say it is broad along the axis of travel.
• A table is only broad if its shortest side is considered wide for normal tables. If the longer side is considered longer than normal then you'd say it's "long". A square table can never be long.
• When talking about something with only one dimension, it is common to use a word like "broad". Example, broad-spectrum antibiotics target a wide range of bacteria. Narrow spectrum antibiotics target a smaller range.
• Some things have a definite "top/bottom" or "side" and those would be considered broad if the "side" dimension is long. Example, a book: the direction of the text tells you which way is "up"; the book can be tall or short independently of how broad/wide it is.

When it comes to area, calling an area "broad" really depends on your perspective. For arbitrary shapes in an abstract context, it might be acceptable to call something "broad" if it the side you are facing is long. But in that case you would need to, eg, explicitly label the axes "breadth" and "depth" or something. And it would be very arbitrary. Naturally speaking, words like long, short, tall, big, small, broad, narrow, etc, are highly dependent on the context. A pencil is "long" if it is longer than your other pencils or longer than an average pencil. But a short extension cord will still be much longer than any pencil. A broad sheet of paper will still fit quite easily on a narrow table.

Answer 3

Since "breadth" is a one-dimensional measure, and not a two-dimensional measure, I would say "broad" and "broadest" are actually wrong when talking about surface area. Use "large" and "largest".