What’s the Plural of “Basis”?
Okay, a serious post today; no comic. Here’s a quote fro the July/August Scientific American, page 59. It’s from an article about quantum mechanics:
…In this scenario, a qubit can be in some superposition of the values +1 and -1. Measuring a qubit
involves specifying something called a basis—think of it as a direction.
Now. What do you say when you need to refer to more than one basis? Would you say “basises”? Maybe something you would pronounce “basisees”? Well, the correct plural is ths same as the plural of “base,” like four bases in baseball. And Scientific American got it right! Here’s the next sentence:
Using different measurement bases can yield different results.
I confess I don’t know how to pronounce that version of “bases.” How would you pronounce it? Tell me in the comments.
Here’s a picture from another quantum article:
Leave a Reply