For years, an experimental physicist sits through countless hours of physics lectures which mostly focus on the theoretical.  Hypothetical is the name of the game.  Being engulfed in a sea of abstract jargon, a few phrases really adhere to a physicist’s subconscious, making him prone to conversational non sequiturs. A few qurirks that come to mind are excessive use of the words trivial and coupling.  For example, “These cables seem to be trivially wired, yet I can’t tell how these two are coupled.”  A little bit of an awkward oratorical toolkit develops over one’s education.

But, I feel that one introductory phrase really exemplifies the problem associated with developing this flavor of vocabulary.  Let’s consider the expression, “In principle.”  From the Free Dictionary, “in principle” actually seems well defined:

in principle – with regard to fundamentals although not concerning details

Pretty clear, right?  “In principle” should probably be used to discuss more lofty or general ideas and situations, as opposed to everyday, common issues.  Let’s take a look at a few examples:

Don’t say this:

  • In principle, the weather is nice today.
  • In principle, I am hungry.
  • In principle, I’d like you to plot the diphoton pT as well as the jet pT.
  • In principle, we should go out sometime.

Say this:

  • In principle, we expect two solutions to this equation.
  • I agree with you, in principle.
  • In principle, the distributions should be identical.
  • In principle, I should find you attractive, but I actually don’t.

Okay, so, maybe don’t say that last one.  But, social graces are a whole other lesson that we should probably cover someday soon.