News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Why is a minute divided into 60 seconds, an hour into 60 minutes?. Parent comment

Re:Why is a minute divided into 60 seconds, an hour into 60 ... by phaemon on Wednesday January 15, 2014 @07:15AM (#7062904)
> For base 60, this is exacerbated

Sorry to nitpick, but "exacerbate" is to make worse. It's like "ex-acerbate". It doesn't mean "even more so" in a good way. Just thought you'd like to know.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why is a minute divided into 60 seconds, an hour into 60 ... by nmc on Wednesday January 15, 2014 @07:45AM (#7063005)
Thank you! As you may have spotted, I am not a native English speaker, and I was confused by "false friends".

The verb "to exacerbate" comes from French verb "exacerber", which means "to make more intense or more acute".

My post has been edited to reflect your comment.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Why is a minute divided into 60 seconds, an hour into 60 ... by pygy_ on Wednesday January 15, 2014 @07:56AM (#7063050)
While we're picking nits, You could have replaced "exacerbated" with "magnified" in the original sentence. "it intensifies" sounds a bit weird too.
[ Parent | on HN ]