Effective focal lengthvsfocal length

In absolute rank order as collocates of diffuse, the order for the nouns listed above is: situation, tension, crisis, bomb, anger, row, confrontation, standoff.

Thanks for the comment, Martyn. When I started writing this, I thought diffuse is wrong in all circumstances. Now my view has changed slightly, though I would never use it myself. However, at a pinch, for me it works with emotions and tension, but with nothing else. With standoff and the others listed I find it odd. Someone has commented in a forum as follows: “and sorry for the devil’s-advocate position here, but it may actually be something that bears a touch of consideration), the misuse of “diffuse” does make at least a wee bit of sense if you look at one of its implied definitions in context. Think about things that are subject to diffusion (gases, suspensions, solutions, etc.) and ask yourself what /happens/ to them: they start out at a high concentration but are spread out enough to lower the concentration (and, by extension, the /efficacy/) greatly. A room that is thick with tension, for example, just might give the impression of the tension’s being /diffused/”. I can see that argument.

In its literal meaning [sort of obviously, because it consists of the prefix de- + fuse (noun)], defuse means ‘to remove the fuse of an explosive device in order to prevent it from exploding’:

On the other hand, for example, in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, defusion strategies have a major role. They are meant to take the heat out of your thoughts and reactions. When I first heard them being mentioned, though, I really wasn’t sure if they were defusion or diffusion techniques. They could equally be diffusion techniques because they scatter and thereby neuter the emotions connected with thoughts.

What isfocal lengthof lens

(Because the subject of the intransitive use can be the object of the transitive, it falls into the class of verbs classified as ergative. The fullest explanation of the verb’s syntax is in the Cobuild Dictionary).

One quite often comes across sentences using diffuse with nouns which seem more appropriate to defuse, both in its literal—bomb, explosive—and metaphorical meanings—crisis, situation, tension, anger, conflict. Are these mistakes or legitimate extensions of meaning and collocation?

What isfocal lengthin photography

But defuse has a near-homophone. It is, of course, the verb diffuse. The only thing that distinguishes it from defuse in speech is that its first vowel is a short i, /dɪˈfjuːz/, contrasting with the long i of /di:ˈfjuːz/, rhyming with tea.

Simplifying its meanings considerably (I hope you’ll allow the unattached participle), if something diffuses, it spreads, and if you diffuse it, you spread it, e.g. information diffuses and you can diffuse it.

What diffuses/is diffused can be abstract or concrete, and in the latter case it has a specific physical meaning when light is involved: ‘to cause light to spread evenly to reduce glare and harsh shadows’, e.g. The morning light was diffused to a mucky orange by the pollution of the shuddering city.

At a pinch, this would work for “situation”, and possibly “tension”, but surely the only way to “diffuse” a bomb would be to blow it up – the exact opposite of what the Guardian meant. Significantly, oth “situation” and “tension” collocate with the adjective “explosive”.

“To diffuse a standoff” also sounds very odd to me: as if it involves the protagonists physically moving away from each other, which again it doesn’t necessarily mean (you can defuse a standoff by getting the people involved to continue the discussion more calmly).

Most dictionaries do not accept this use of diffuse, but Cobuild, a dictionary for learners of English as a foreign language, does. Presumably, as an impeccably corpus-based venture, its authors examined the evidence of actual use.

What isfocal lengthof lens class 10

As regards US pronunciation, I think I see what you mean. On US dict websites the two are shown as different, but the i and e in US pron could be similar. But proportionally diffuse seems to be more common in BrE.

However, ‘spreading’ is not the only meaning of to diffuse, and it is here that its physical meaning of ‘dispersing’ light comes into play. Light that is diffused is made softer and less intense, so I suppose that diffusing tension disperses it and thereby renders it less potent. I follow the logic of the Oxford editor’s argument, even though it still reads like special pleading to this old fuddy-duddy (what a wonderful word that is!).

I find myself considerably (if one can be, linguistically speaking) in (or of, in the US) two minds. On the one hand, since this form is especially common in newspapers and transcripts, I suspect that urgent deadlines are often responsible, not to mention a certain amount of journalistic sloppiness. If I’m being over-literal, to my mind diffuse = ‘to spread’, and therefore diffusing tension spreads it rather than dissipating it.

The crop factor is a crucial concept in photography that relates to the size of a camera’s image sensor compared to a full-frame sensor (35mm film equivalent). It affects the field of view and apparent magnification of lenses used on the camera. A higher crop factor means a narrower field of view and greater magnification for a given focal length.

Yes, the Effective Focal Length can be calculated for any camera and lens combination as long as you know the actual focal length of the lens and the crop factor of the camera’s sensor. This calculation helps in understanding how a lens will perform on different camera bodies.

Another thing occurred to me this morning: aren’t the two words more likely to be confused in US English than in GB, because in American English their pronunciation is more similar (or even identical)?

Effective focal lengthreddit

The Effective Focal Length (EFL) impacts the composition by altering the angle of view and magnification of the scene captured. It essentially determines how ‘zoomed in’ your photos will appear. Understanding EFL helps photographers choose the right lens to achieve the desired composition and perspective.

It is a moot point. Cobuild recognises it, but Collins, Macquarie and Merriam-Webster do not. Nor is it to be found in most dictionaries for learners of English, such as Cambridge, Macmillan, and the Oxford Advanced Learner’s. This suggests to me the possibility that, whereas the Cobuild editors acknowledged the weight of usage which is tending to legitimise what many people would still consider a mistake, the editors of dictionaries for learners prefer to discourage students from muddling up the two words. (It is also worth pointing out, incidentally, that the WordPress spellchecker flagged diffuse ire and diffuse tension in this blog, and asked if I meant defuse.)

Effective focal lengthcalculator

There are eight noun objects with which they both collocate. They are listed in descending order, according to the ratio of occurrences of defuse to diffuse: situation, anger, confrontation, standoff, tension, row, crisis, bomb. The ratios range from just under 3:1 for situation to nearly 12:1 for bomb. In other words, for the most literal meaning, diffuse encroaches far less on defuse than it does with less literal meanings.

Focal lengthof lens formula

Their collocations overlap very little: apart from noun objects, as shown below, the adverb quickly and the verbs try and attempt.

I think you defuse something that can be described as “[potentially] explosive”, and you “diffuse” something that is made up of (usually very tiny) elements: light, water droplets, dust, etc.

It also worth noting that both Cobuild and the Oxford note reproduced above have the same noun object collocate: tension.

So, I can see that there may well be a shift in collocational primings going on. In other words, more and more people are psychologically primed by their experience of the word diffuse to associate it with the semantic set of tension, crisis, etc, and to associate that set with diffuse rather than defuse.

Effective focal lengthof two lenses

To my mind, to diffuse something is to make it more diffuse, which means I’d only use “diffuse” for composite masses of things (you refer to “particles”).

‘To diffuse a feeling, especially an undesirable one, means to cause it to weaken and lose its power to affect people’: The arrival of letters from the Pope did nothing to diffuse the tension.

In the OEC, these two lemmas do not differ much in frequency: they occur just over twice in every million words of text (compared to, say, ‘big’, which occurs nearly 400 times per million).

Enter the focal length (mm) and the crop factor into the Calculator. The calculator will evaluate the Effective Focal Length.

by Jeremy Butterfield.In Confusable Words, eggcorns, Help for writers & editors.3 Comments on To defuse or diffuse a situation? Commonly confused words (19-20)

‘Diffuse means, broadly, “disperse”, while the non-literal meaning of defuse is “reduce the danger or tension in”. Thus sentences such as Cooper successfully diffused the situation are regarded as incorrect, while Cooper successfully defused the situation would be correct. However, such uses of diffuse are widespread, and can make sense: the image in, for example, “only peaceful dialogue between the two countries could diffuse tension” is not of making a bomb safe but of reducing something dangerous to particles and dispersing them harmlessly.

However, that collocational shift still raises problems for me. If diffuse is ‘correct’ when used metaphorically, and in specific collocations, e.g. tension/row/controversy/crisis, why would it not be ‘correct’ when applied literally (i.e. ?he diffused the device). But, even though diffuse turns up several times with bomb and words in that set, it still feels completely wrong, at least to me. Of course, one could argue that diffuse in that metaphor is not motivated by a literal meaning, but that seems to fly in the face of what normally happens with metaphors.

Calculating the Effective Focal Length before a photo shoot is important for planning and visualizing the shots. It helps photographers select the appropriate lens to achieve the desired field of view or to match a particular composition style, ensuring that the final images meet their creative vision.

in its literal sense, according to the OED, it’s a relative newcomer (1943). As a metaphor (1958), it refers to making a situation less dangerous or volatile. In other words, a situation is conceived of as something explosive, like a bomb. Things that people typically defuse (noun objects of the verb) are situation(s), crisis/crises, tension(s), anger, conflict(s), row(s):

The Online Oxford Dictionary has a usage note (discussed later on); and the Cambridge Guide to Modern English Usage considers that when it comes to emotions (for example, as in the sample sentence above), the two distinct verbs overlap and converge.

(If you enjoy this blog, and find it useful, there’s an easy way for you to find out when I blog again. Just sign up (in the right-hand column) and you’ll receive an email to tell you. “Simples!”, as the meerkats say. I shall be blogging regularly about issues of English usage, word histories, and writing tips. Enjoy!)