Timeline for What is a single word meaning "authoritative source of knowledge"?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
10 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 27, 2012 at 0:20 | comment | added | ErikE | Anatomy of a Musical Canon | |
| Apr 26, 2012 at 21:32 | comment | added | Jay | @ErikE I'm not familiar with the term -- not surprising, I'm not that knowledgeable about music. Okay, as you describe it now, I see the connection. I misunderstood your first description. | |
| Apr 26, 2012 at 20:34 | comment | added | ErikE | @Jay Good point about the particles. Anyway about the music, have you heard of "canon at the octave"? Specifically, for piano? It means to lay down a "canonical" melody, then what comes after it repeats what has been laid down. In the sense of "that which is to be copied; the source" it has the same meaning. | |
| Apr 23, 2012 at 15:05 | comment | added | Jay | ... I am unfamiliar with the musical term you describe. From what you say this appears to be a completely different definition of the word. | |
| Apr 23, 2012 at 15:04 | comment | added | Jay | @ErikE This page, enotes.com/topic/List_of_particles, lists dozens of subatomic particles, including many classed as "hypothetical", so I don't think it's really valid to say that the list is "short and closed". Of course that would be a reason to NOT refer to a canonical list, at least in the present tense. But in any case, my point wasn't to question whether physicists talk specifically about a "canonical list of subatomic particles", but rather whether they talk about ANYTHING being "canonical". I don't know. (continued) | |
| Apr 22, 2012 at 22:33 | comment | added | ErikE | @Jay The elementary particle list is short and is closed--there aren't really multiple sources telling us different things about it that may or may not be true. If there were, then perhaps it would make more sense. Also note that music can be a canon, meaning a melody is repeated at an interval after a certain period of time. Most people know of canon in D by Pachelbel... | |
| Apr 20, 2012 at 17:19 | comment | added | Jay | @ErikE Yes, it's used in IT in general to refer to an authoritative source. In IT it can also mean the "standard" or "approved" something, like "canonical date format". As an IT person myself, I'm not sure how I skipped that. I'm not aware of it having similar meaning in other fields -- "a canonical list of elementary particles" ? | |
| Apr 19, 2012 at 19:47 | comment | added | ErikE | @Jay I refer to "canonical data sets" all the time, to mean the set of data that we know to be trusted, true, clean, reliable, and the source by which other sets of data are modified to become so. I also use it for other situations in technology where I mean to connote "the approved and proper set". | |
| Mar 16, 2012 at 16:30 | comment | added | Jay | True, though I think it's mostly limited to religious and literary contexts. i.e. you can talk about "the Christian canon" or the "Hindu canon", and you can talk about "the Star Trek canon". But I don't think I've ever heard someone refer to "the wood-working canon" or "the particle physics canon". | |
| Mar 16, 2012 at 16:13 | history | answered | Tim Lymington | CC BY-SA 3.0 |