Without looking, if you encounted the word torus and its plural form tori, would you know what it meant? And if not what non-corny substitutes could be used?
Posted by oliverhouse (Member # 3432) on :
"Torus" is no problem, although it might be a bit much for people who aren't mathematically or geometrically inclined. I'd probably get "tori", but depending on context it might make me stumble, second-guessing myself and wondering if it were a girl's name. I'd use "torus" in science fiction, but not in fantasy; I don't think I'd personally use "tori" at all unless I had used "torus" previously.
To offer substitutes, I think I'd need to see the context. "Donut" or "bagel" isn't corny at all in the right setting. The shape might remind the reader of the tire swing they had in their back yard as a child. "Like one of those plastic rings that hamsters run around in all day" might even be appropriate if that were something that your POV character would think. "A ring, like planetary rings, but instead of a flat cross-section, this object was tubular..." I think before I got to the lattermost, though, I'd just say "torus".
Regards, Oliver
Posted by franc li (Member # 3850) on :
Once I got into the second post a bit, I realized I know what "toroidal" means, but I wouldn't recognize Torus. And I know Latin. I would have assumed it was a made-up word.
Posted by arriki (Member # 3079) on :
sort of a doughtnut shape but with the hole filled in?
Posted by ChrisOwens (Member # 1955) on :
Thanks.
A little background without taking this to F&F:
The characters try to make sense of thier superhuman sight, not knowing how or why they have it.
In the first instance on page 15: [Despite closed eyes, a torus of white flames burned into his vision.]
There is in fact a tire swing in that scene that has nothing to do with the sight, which I hope acts as a twofold symbol, one for childhood, the other that hopefully and backhandedly reminds some of the torus field the characters experience from there on out.
On page 18, the viewpoint character [touched two fingers to his eyelids and held them closed. Two reddish tori wavered against the blackness, joined by a violet thread. "There're your doughnuts...]
They had a quip on page 3 about doughnuts, hopefully not a cliche one. The other character says, "More like a cosmic barbell", refering how the two shapes are linked by a thin line.
[This message has been edited by ChrisOwens (edited February 27, 2007).]
Posted by RMatthewWare (Member # 4831) on :
I'm guessing you are using torus in its botanical connotation. But I had to look it up to figure that up. To me, the only thing that came to mind was taurus-either the bull or the car. You'd have to explain it to me for me to get it.
Matt
Posted by InarticulateBabbler (Member # 4849) on :
I would've assumed it was a misspelling or changed spelling of Taurus.
Posted by ChrisOwens (Member # 1955) on :
Maybe I'll use the word ring instead. Hopefuly it doesn't bring to mind LOTR.
Wow. Nothing gets me past a mental block like discussing it. Thanks...
[This message has been edited by ChrisOwens (edited February 27, 2007).]
Posted by hoptoad (Member # 2145) on :
I would think it was some version of: 'taurus' too.
Obviously it isn't.
The tori would be a race of alien minotaurs that have learned to bend space and time into a doughnut. A jelly doughnut.
[This message has been edited by hoptoad (edited February 27, 2007).]
Posted by hoptoad (Member # 2145) on :
PS:
A ring isn't exactly the same as a torus
Ring does not give the sense of a doughnut shaped, tube-like structure.
But if it serves your purpose...
[This message has been edited by hoptoad (edited February 27, 2007).]
Posted by oliverhouse (Member # 3432) on :
quote:The tori would be a race of alien minotaurs that have learned to bend space and time into a doughnut. A jelly doughnut.
*snort*
Posted by Rommel Fenrir Wolf II (Member # 4199) on :
Dose it have to be a jelly donut why not a cream filled donut. I could sure use a good cream filled donut and coffee after PT every morning. As for torus would not have a clue until looking it up, unless there was some context explaining what it was. Rommel Fenrir Wolf II
Posted by lehollis (Member # 2883) on :
Would it be okay to say something kind of like, "A torus shape, like a doughnut or the tire swing a few geet away..." so the reader will know from there on out what you mean, if they didn't?
It sounds like something I might do, but I'm not sure if that would be a good technique or not.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
Sometimes "torus" is used to describe a spinning space station---think of the one in "2001."
Posted by Rommel Fenrir Wolf II (Member # 4199) on :
2001 was a grate movie and 2010 the year we made contact was not all that bad either. Rommel Fenrir Wolf II
Posted by Spaceman (Member # 9240) on :
Toroids are boring. Mobius Strips are where it's at.
Posted by oliverhouse (Member # 3432) on :
Serendipity. I happened to be reading the March issue of Analog this morning on the train, and I saw this:
quote:Liz touched the net for a map. The Singer's habitable parts consisted of six spheres spaced hexagonally, like beads on a stiff hoop, around the magnetic field generation cable. Between spheres, sections of a torus enclosed the wire and a passageway.
From "The Small Pond" by C. Sanford Lowe and G. David Nordley. There's more, but this gives you the flavor.
This was a good use of "torus", I thought, in that the writers don't depend on the reader's knowledge of the word; from context, you can tell that it's a geometric term.
Regards, Oliver
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
I saw part of "2001" in its original run. About the time HAL started breaking down, my grandmother, who I went with, insisted we leave. It was nearly ten years before I got to see how it came out---the book was all different.
Posted by Rommel Fenrir Wolf II (Member # 4199) on :
HAL broke down because he had conflicting orders and became paranoid, in the 2nd movie they fixed him, and HAL had no memory of what happened. Rommel Fenrir Wolf II
Posted by Grandma_Jan (Member # 4788) on :
Ah, Spaceman, mobius strips are lovely, but mobius spheres are where it's at!
Maybe if enough writers use "torus" in a way that their readers can understand, in a few years the word will become common enough that this discussion would be unnecessary. Go for it!
