In chemistry, word usage leaps from ambiguity to incomprehension. Here is a quote from
E.Kasner and J.Newman:
In chemistry, substances no more complicated than sugar, starch, or alcohol have names like
this: Methylpropenylenedihydroxicinnamenylacryc acid, or, 0-anhydrosulfaminobenzoine, or,
protocatechuicaldehydemethylene. It would be inconvenient if we had to use such terms in
everyday conversation. We could imagine even the aristocrat of science at the breakfast table
asking, "Please pass the 0-anhydrosulfaminobenzoic acid," when all he wanted was sugar for
his coffee?
We consider Everett's work to be useful and important, but we believe
that there is much more to be done. In some cases too, his choice of
vocabulary and that of subsequent commentators on his work have created
confusion. For example, his interpretation is often described in terms of
"many worlds," whereas we believe that "many alternative histories of the
universe" is what is really meant. Furthermore, the many worlds are
described as being "all equally real," whereas we believe it is less confusing
to speak of "many histories, all treated alike by the theory except for their
different probabilities." To use the language we recommend is to address the
familiar notion that a given system can have different possible histories, each
with its own probability; it is not necessary to become queasy trying to
conceive of many 16 parallel universes," all equally real. (One distinguished
physicist, well versed in quantum mechanics, inferred from certain
commentaries on Everett's interpretation that anyone who accepts it should
want to play Russian roulette for high stakes, because in some of the
"equally real" worlds the player would survive and be rich.)
And an additional note to explain the meaning of the word "history":
By "history" we do not mean to emphasize the past at the expense of the future; nor do we refer mainly to written records as in human history. A history is merely a narrative of a time sequence of events - past, present, or future.
On page 181, we discover another peculiar word usage:
... The u and d are said to be different "flavors" of quark. Besides flavor, the quarks have another, even more important property called "color", although it has no more to do with real color than flavor in this context has to do with the flavors of frozen yoghurt.
