This is a belated reaction to the statement on a recent show that one million microphones equal a megaphone. In the usual parlance, one million microphones would be a phone; a million million microphones, or a million phones, would be a megaphone.

Interesting catch. It is an exercise in semantics I suppose, as I don’t think it takes a million microcars to equal one car. Glad to see someone is thinking, fun!

It was a joke. It can be anything the teller wants it to be as long as it gets a laugh! :wink:

A million microphones isn’t a phone…it’s a million microphones. “Microphone” is a nomenclature, an improper noun. There is no correct term for a million of them other than…a million of them. Similarly, a million tomatoes isn’t a megatomatoe…it’s just a million tomatoes.

So a bug with 1000 legs isn’t a megapede?

Nope. A bug with a MILLION legs is a megapede! But a half million bugs with two legs each isn’t a megapede…it’s a half million two legged bugs.

Gigaphone…I like that. CORRECTION: a half million two legged bugs is a half million bipedal bugs!

I don’t think there’s any such thing as a bipedal bug - unless some obnoxious kid pulled a bunch of its legs off. I think only two legs disqualifies it from the bug category. But if there were bipedal bugs then I give the argument to mountainbike. But wait…if by a “bug” we mean a tiny little micr…

Cig, I was wondering when someone would catch that. Where’s that retired linguistics professor when you need him?

Nit-Picking Dept: A million microphones do not make a megaphone!

The Show

Triedaq January 27, 2012, 7:48am 8

I have a special telephone on its own line to book musical engagements. This telephone is called a gigaphone.

Topic		Replies	Views
Kilo-meter or Kilometer? The Show	34	3624	June 22, 2011
How to pronounce kilometer The Show	71	6538	November 7, 2011
Metric system The Show	166	8040	March 24, 2012
New Staff The Show	1	442	September 11, 2011
A little Car Talk humor on a topic we love to hate - Extended Warranties! General Discussion landrover	48	4209	February 17, 2021

Nit-Picking Dept: A million microphones do not make a megaphone!

Related topics