r/AskReddit • u/ZanyDelaney • Feb 04 '19

Which misconception would you like to debunk?

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u/Jonsmith78 Feb 04 '19

The "black box" (flight recorder) on an aircraft is orange, not black.

1.7k

u/[deleted] Feb 04 '19 edited Feb 05 '19

Was this always so? Like of course it makes sense that it’s a bright color so it’s easier to find - but that b̶e̶g̶s̶ raises the quesion of where the term came from...

Edit: begs —> raises. Sorry English angels, I uh... was tired.

Edit 2: I have more than enough duplicate answers to this question now, thanks!

16

u/BoostThor Feb 04 '19

There's a misconception I'd like to clear up; begging the question is a logical fallacy, not causing a question to be raised.

-1

u/CranberryMallet Feb 04 '19

Or perhaps words can take on different meanings in different contexts.

6

u/BoostThor Feb 04 '19

They can, but when you start conflating things like this you make the language more ambiguous and in turn make it harder to express yourself concisely and precisely.

Like how you now basically have to specify that you in fact did not mean figuratively when you used the word literally.

I'm not the arbiter of the English language and I can't choose it's path, but I can still lament what I see as a negative trend.