large (?) length, large (?) height

English translation: reword

09:10 Feb 6, 2007
English language (monolingual) [PRO]
Tech/Engineering - Metallurgy / Casting
English term or phrase: large (?) length, large (?) height
I believe that use of the word "large" is not appropriate here.

Can someone tell me the right word ?

===
The heating ducts are connected to the flue gas exhauster, which is used to remove the flue gas, which is a product of the heating gas burning, from the heating ducts. Preferably, the heating ducts are made of a ***large length *** (up to 25 meters) to ensure effective utilization of the heat produced by burning the heating gas. Thus, a ***large height*** of the fire-resistant chamber made in the form of a vertical tower ensures the desired hydrostatic pressure at the bottom of a coke cake – up to 0.2 kgf/cm2 to form a solid-coke body.
Alexander Onishko
Selected answer:reword
Explanation:
It appears to me that the intended meaning is that the ducts or chamber must be sufficiently long or sufficiently high to achieve the intended objective.

Here I would suggest 'the heating ducts are preferably made long enough (preferably 25 m)...' and 'the height of the chamber,...'.

For the second part, it would be better to say 'The high chamber... thus ensures...'.

The original wording of the first part (with the ducts) suggests that the ducts are to be made from long sections of pipe or whatever, which IMO is not the intended meaning. Length is an abstract quantity in English, so it sounds unnatural to say that something is 'made of a large length' when what you mean is that it is made to be relatively long. This is further confusing because 'length' can also be used in a concrete sense, such as 'a length of pipe', which means a piece of pipe of certain (unstated) length.


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Note added at 27 mins (2007-02-06 09:38:01 GMT)
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Oops, make that 'the heating ducts are preferably made long enough (up to 25 m) or 'are preferably made relatively long'.
Selected response from:

Ken Cox
Local time: 07:43
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED
4 +6reword
Ken Cox
4 +2See comments below...
Tony M
4long, tall
Ioanna Karamanou
4length, height(see below)
Marie-Hélène Hayles
3 +1the long heating ducts (...metres) / a high fire-resistant chamber
Els Spin
3maximum length, height
Shera Lyn Parpia


  

Answers


2 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
long, tall


Explanation:
long length, tall height

Ioanna Karamanou
United States
Local time: 02:43
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in GreekGreek
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7 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
length, height(see below)


Explanation:
Personally, I'd change the wording as follows:
"Preferably, the heating ducts are of a length (up to 25 metres) sufficient to..."
"Thus, the height of the fire-resistant chamber..."

In the second sentence, "tall" is redundant - the use of "height" on its own conveys the desired meaning.

Marie-Hélène Hayles
Local time: 07:43
Native speaker of: English
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7 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
maximum length, height


Explanation:
You're right, it doesn't make sense.

maximum would aoply to the first term, whereas you might use the second on its own dropping the "large".

Shera Lyn Parpia
Italy
Local time: 07:43
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
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25 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +6
reword


Explanation:
It appears to me that the intended meaning is that the ducts or chamber must be sufficiently long or sufficiently high to achieve the intended objective.

Here I would suggest 'the heating ducts are preferably made long enough (preferably 25 m)...' and 'the height of the chamber,...'.

For the second part, it would be better to say 'The high chamber... thus ensures...'.

The original wording of the first part (with the ducts) suggests that the ducts are to be made from long sections of pipe or whatever, which IMO is not the intended meaning. Length is an abstract quantity in English, so it sounds unnatural to say that something is 'made of a large length' when what you mean is that it is made to be relatively long. This is further confusing because 'length' can also be used in a concrete sense, such as 'a length of pipe', which means a piece of pipe of certain (unstated) length.


--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 27 mins (2007-02-06 09:38:01 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Oops, make that 'the heating ducts are preferably made long enough (up to 25 m) or 'are preferably made relatively long'.

Ken Cox
Local time: 07:43
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 4
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Tony M: Well said, Ken! A much more succinct and helpful analysis than my own // Thanks, Ken — you're too kind!
1 hr
  -> no need to be so modest; IMO our answers are complementary

agree  Vicky Papaprodromou
2 hrs

agree  Gillian Scheibelein: relatively/comparatively long/high was my first thought
3 hrs
  -> yes, 'relatively' works well here

agree  Sophia Finos (X)
11 hrs

agree  ErichEko ⟹⭐: Very good rewording!
16 hrs

agree  Alfa Trans (X)
1 day 8 hrs
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19 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +2
See comments below...


Explanation:
You're right, Alex, "large" sits uncomfortably here. "great" would be better, except that it sound slightly silly in this register. "considerable" and "significant" are intensifiers that might work, but again, neither quite conveys the right meaning here.

I think your best solution would be to turn the wording round (it could do with it anyway!) to say something like "...as long as feasible/possible), or else "..the greater the length, the better, up to...) or "The heating ducts should preferably be as long as possible"

For the second one, it really needs completely rewording again, something like: "The fire-resistant chamber is constructed in the form of a vertical tower of significant height, so that..." (actually, I'd have said "height:width ratio" if I'd been writing this!)

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Note added at 2 hrs (2007-02-06 12:03:00 GMT)
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Mara's suggestion of "extensive" set me thinking; my first reaction as an ENS was simply that it "didn't sound right", but KudoZ is always a good place for me to find my assumptions about my own native language challenged, and it's a salutory exercise to stop and think why, so I did a bit of Googling for "extensive length" to see where and how it is being used perfectly correctly. Here are just a few examples I found:
in specialist scientific usage: extensive length polymorphism
"going to extensive lengths" — "lengths" being a noun with a special meaning
"a book of extensive length" — "length" here being almost abstract, not referring to its physical size (test: could you call it "lengthy"?)
"an extensive length of piping" — here it is referring to a section of piping, and not the physical characteristic of its linear dimension (test: could you replace it with another word like piece, section, etc.)

...and I stopped there, because it was coffee-time!

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Note added at 2 hrs (2007-02-06 12:04:24 GMT)
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Oh, I forgot examples like "extensive length availability", where "extensive" is in fact qualifying "availability" and not "length"

Tony M
France
Local time: 07:43
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 8

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Paula Vaz-Carreiro
1 hr
  -> Thanks, Paula!

agree  Vicky Papaprodromou
2 hrs
  -> Efharisto, Vicky!
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4 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +1
the long heating ducts (...metres) / a high fire-resistant chamber


Explanation:
Simply rephrase.

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Note added at 4 hrs (2007-02-06 14:04:39 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

The heating ducts are connected to the flue gas exhauster, which is used to remove the flue gas, which is a product of the heating gas burning, from the heating ducts. Preferably, the heating ducts are ***long*** (up to 25 meters) to ensure effective utilization of the heat produced by burning the heating gas. Thus, a ***high*** fire-resistant chamber made in the form of a vertical tower ensures the desired hydrostatic pressure at the bottom of a coke cake – up to 0.2 kgf/cm2 to form a solid-coke body.

Els Spin
Netherlands
Local time: 07:43
Native speaker of: Dutch

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  LAC: definately! Much clearer and simpler.
4 hrs
  -> Thank you!
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