I’m disappointed that you call physical definitions as “weedy” and you think that only the “academic types” should use them. It’s obvious to me that you have never had any basic engineering education like physics and math but trying to be one.
Indeed it is…count me out too. I can only discuss technical matters with people who understands them.
Well, i ran through every math and science class offered in high school, and was given a grant to do independent physics study my senior year.
When I got around to going to college, I was set on business, so a math minor was all the science & math I could squeeze, given getting majors in economics and finance. Grad school was world class, but not much math other than statistics. Employment had me working as a peer with accomplished profs and academics, including Nobels, lured away from universities..
So i know how to talk the "definitional talk" when needed....which I've found is surprisingly needed less often, once out of school.
In fact, the more accomplished the level of academic I encountered, the less they relied on strict definitions, unless the definitions were needed to
differentiate focus-worthy points or alternatives in a discussion.
It's a huge mistake imo, to strictly require science discussions hold to bunch of definitions, and how they relate to each other. (note i said strictly)
And for a Professor, it's a huge mistake to make that definitional method what is taught. Those guys bored me to death; and worse, all I learned was how to parrot out stuff for the next exam.
Now take Professors like Feynman, who I would love to have been able to sit in class with, ..... profs that I had, that were more like him, imparted real understanding. They were utterly fascinating and full of real teaching ability.
And often kept the instruction within a grade school vocabulary, to help impart understanding..
Anyway, all the above said in the interest of peace......
So my bottom line: if the definitional distinctions
differentiate focus-worth points or alternatives in a discussion, they fit well imo.
If not, why utter them?