User:Dan Polansky/Usage

This is a filing place for various info on how to use terms, including with which prepositions and what objects of these prepositions.

• vary
  • an object varies in one of its attributes from the bottom value to the top value: "The spear of the desert man is either sharp pointed, spatulate pointed, or barbed. They [spears] vary in length from 8 feet to 10 feet, and in diameter, at the head (the thickest portion), from 1/2 inch to 1 inch."[1]
  • an attribute of an object varies from one time point to another time point: "Though the real value of a corn rent, it is to be observed, however, varies much less from century to century than that of a money rent, it varies much more from year to year."[2]; the time points are nevertheless indicated as time periods, as if the time points lied in the middle of the time period or at some other reference point within the time period.
  • an attribute of an object varies within limits: "The albumins contain in all cases the elements carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulphur and oxygen; their composition, however, varies within certain limits: C = 50-55%, H = 6.9-7.3%, N. = 15-19%, S = 0.3-2.4%, ..."[3]
  • an attribute of objects in a class varies with the object or with a subclass: '"Caseinogen" (after W. D. Halliburton) is the chief albumin of milk; its composition varies with the animal.'[4]
  • an attribute of objects in a class varies with another attribute of the objects: "Calculation shows that this fictitious mass varies with the velocity, and that the force of inertia of self-induction is not the same when the velocity of the projectile accelerates or slackens, or when it is deviated; therefore so it is with the force of the total apparent inertia."[5]
  • an attribute of objects in a class varies across the class: "However, demands for blood cell formation vary across mammals and thus the size of the active stem cell compartment could vary across species."[6]