Another teacher came to me with a potential test question. In the text, she uses "optimum" to refer to the fastest route for a lifeguard to save a swimmer. I forget the exact wording.
"The optimum, in order to reach the swimmer quickly..."
I told her I didn't think this was a correct usage of optimum but she disagreed. Any thoughts?
It's not uncommon to use adjectives like this; I'm not sure it turns the adjective into a noun. Consider:
Someone sent you three packages. The largest feels like it is empty.
This doesn't seem right to me, though there might be some words you could put in place of the ellipsis that would allow a valid reading. For example:
The optimum course is down by the pier whereas swimming out through the breakers is going to be much slower. The optimum, in order to reach the swimmer quickly, is the best way to go.
Even this is a little awkward. So the answer is "it depends on the context."
She is confusing optimum (the best) with the shortest distance, the route most easily traversed, or the most efficient approach. Her question could be better put, What is the quickest way to reach the swimmer? It is possible that the shortest distance is a route infested with alligators, so that would not be the optimum way.
In mathematics, optimum also has a meaning of optimal solution , although I'm fairly certain it doesn't work without the preceding "local" or "global". As pointed out in the comments, the qualifier is not necessary.
