Timeline for Is there any planet bigger than a star?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
10 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| S Oct 31, 2021 at 8:00 | history | suggested | JDługosz | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
clarify to state that answer is interpreting "bigger" to mean mass.
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| Oct 30, 2021 at 6:16 | comment | added | Raphael Schweikert | @JohnBollinger I agree. Context matters and the cardboards box example is contrived. The same kind of ambiguity reappears when talking about countries. Those can be bigger by area or by population and both are completely valid. | |
| Oct 29, 2021 at 14:13 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Oct 31, 2021 at 8:00 | |||||
| Oct 28, 2021 at 22:08 | comment | added | John Bollinger | @JDługosz, I would not say that of a cardboard box, but I very well might, and others definitely do, say it of a planet or star. Context matters. The fact that a clarification on this matter was requested on the question and was so highly upvoted should stand as evidence that lots of people do see an ambiguity here. I grant that using "bigger" in astronomical context to mean "more massive" can be viewed as imprecise, but it is nevertheless relatively common in such context. | |
| Oct 28, 2021 at 20:38 | comment | added | JDługosz | @JohnBollinger Would you really say that a cardboard box filled with stuff is bigger than the same box when empty? I think that the speaker talking about a "bigger" object may implicitly refer to their masses and that the bigger one is also heavier, but the calling of one bigger is keying off the visible shape. If the two properties were not varying in the same direction, one would point out that "the bigger one is lighter". I submit that a native speaker would never call a smaller but heavier choice "bigger". | |
| Oct 28, 2021 at 15:26 | comment | added | John Bollinger | @JDługosz, what's not vague about it? "Bigger" could refer either to bigger radius / volume or to bigger mass. Both senses are fairly common. Indeed, there is a highly upvoted comment on the question requesting exactly this clarification, to which the OP has not yet responded. | |
| Oct 28, 2021 at 14:43 | comment | added | JDługosz | "bigger" is a different word than "heavier". What's vague about it? | |
| Oct 28, 2021 at 12:09 | comment | added | Caius Jard | @JDługosz such is the problem with accepting questions that use vague terms like "bigger" :D | |
| Oct 27, 2021 at 22:41 | comment | added | JDługosz | That contradicts Prof Rob's answer, which has actual examples. Hot Jupiters vs Red Dwarfs, which are "regular stars" (not brown dwarfs). | |
| Oct 27, 2021 at 8:00 | history | answered | James K | CC BY-SA 4.0 |