The Long S • Hacker News Board

Re: The Long S

#81

Post by warrenm » Tue, Sep 06, 2022, 12:12 PM UTC

glandium wrote: post #47

aliqot wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was my impression as well. The older I get the more I appreciate someone who can admit they don't know something.

I don't know how old your story is, but one thing that I can see factoring in is that before recently-ish, it would have been hard to say "it's an interesting question, but I don't know. How about we figure it out?" without spending a large amount of time to find the answer.

Intentionally stifling others' curiosity because of your own ignorance and laziness is horrible

Re: The Long S

#82

Post by ChadNauseam » Tue, Sep 06, 2022, 3:23 PM UTC

ChadNauseam wrote: post #73

quadrifoliate wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is because teachers are themselves graded on standardized test results. Standardized tests don't give a crap about curiosity. So classroom instruction in the US ends up being mostly about the teachers making sure that their students won't drastically underperform on the standardized test.

I think most teachers just don’t care. In highschool, I remember asking my math teacher about ruler’s identity, and she had never heard of it. In middle school our math teacher told us pi was exactly 22/7. In elementary school one of my teachers said there was no gravity on the moon. My highschool chemistry teacher told us that if you put two cheerios in a bowl of milk, they move towards each other because of their m…

*euler's

Re: The Long S

#83

Post by yencabulator » Tue, Sep 06, 2022, 4:04 PM UTC

b3morales wrote: post #6

sph wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure what am I looking for, but damn, the typography and typesetting of this 400 year old book is mind blowing.

On page 3 the mix of double 'V's for 'W', 'u' for 'v', and 'V' for 'U' ('IESVS' at the top) is quite intriguing.

The printer likely had a limited set of types[1] from which to construct the page. If a page was unusually W-heavy, they probably ran out of W blocks, and substituted VV.

Also, V was considered "just another shape for U" for a long time.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sort_(typesetting)