Overtaking Stationary Traffic

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It's not zero - I remember a case when a 70yo man was killed on a zebra by a cyclist. I've also personally witnessed a pedestrian hit and knocked down by a RLJing cyclist, and that was very unpleasant. Sure, the risk is much lower when the offending vehicle is a bicycle, but we still have a responsibility to slow to whatever speed is necessary to be able to stop in the distance we can see to be clear.

I suggest you look up the mathematical meaning of a tilde (~)
 

gambatte

Middle of the pack...
Location
S Yorks
I suggest you look up the mathematical meaning of a tilde (~)
But going on a general cycling forum and expecting people to know what is an obscure mathematical symbol, rather than typing "approx" or "about"....
If I write to another engineer I might use it, but generally?
 

Norm

Guest
I suggest you look up the mathematical meaning of a tilde (~)
"Approximation" is only one of the meanings, it can also be used to show an equivalence. Thus, writing "number of deaths ~ 0 " could just as easily be interpreted as "The number of deaths is equivalent to zero" as "The number of deaths is around zero".

In logic expressions, I understand (but have never personally used) the tilde to mean negation, so writing "number of deaths ~ 0 " would mean that the number of deaths does not equal zero. Now, this is generally used with proving / disproving mathematical propositions rather than to showing a mathematical formula, but it's equally valid and would further add to the confusion in your use of the symbol as a shorthand.

If you want clarity, can I recommend "number of deaths ≃ 0 ".

However, as you have suggested learning opportunities, can I recommend some English revision as well as the Maths. Maybe words like disdain, patronise or condescension would be good places to start. :thumbsup:
 
But going on a general cycling forum and expecting people to know what is an obscure mathematical symbol, rather than typing "approx" or "about"....
If I write to another engineer I might use it, but generally?

So obscure in fact its present as a key on standard keyboards.
 
That is because it is used in linux and unix at command line for accessing parts of the file tree.

The tilde was on keyboards before Unix. Unix just used something that was already there.
 
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