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I am originally from Sweden, although I have lived in America for a few years, and one thing that I have noticed a couple times from American science lecturers is that some of them talk about numbers and various "notations" as if they were persons.
For example, a typical phrase when they eliminate variables or whatever seems to be that they "knock out that guy", and they also seem to refer to some stuff by gender pronouns, such as "he" and "him".
I always thought that this sounded pretty funny, but maybe it is just a simple casual way to refer to whatever they are working with.
I am originally from Sweden, although I have lived in America for a few years, and one thing that I have noticed a couple times from American science lecturers is that some of them talk about numbers and various "notations" as if they were persons.
For example, a typical phrase when they eliminate variables or whatever seems to be that they "knock out that guy", and they also seem to refer to some stuff by gender pronouns, such as "he" and "him".
I always thought that this sounded pretty funny, but maybe it is just a simple casual way to refer to whatever they are working with.
Yes it is pretty common for americans to refer to inanimate objects as "guy", including mathematical objects and physical objects such as ions. For animate beings, women/girls will also call themselves "guy", even though I'm pretty sure "guy" was originally masculine.
I can't tell you how or why it started, but it's been going on for several decades now.
You're exactly right, it is "just a simple casual way to refer to whatever they are working with".
Back when I worked at a company that had gone international we had a meeting to tell everyone to be careful about what we said when dealing with people in other countries.
What brought it to the attention of the owners was when a French employee asked about someone and was told "They bought the farm." The person inquired about where the farm was, how big, etc.
"Bought the farm" is a euphemism for dying in America.
I goes the other way too. I know in some rural parts, inanimate objects are also called "she" or "her". It makes for some awkward sayings like if your truck runs out of oil, you can say "She ran dry".
I think the most awkward use of this phenomenon is a guy I met in college who referred to his penis as "she".
Seriously? I can't remember anyone ever in my life referring to math numbers as... he, she or guy.
Cars? For sure. That's not just an american thing either. But numbers? Disagree. NOT normal.
Maybe it's regional.
But I have indeed heard profs moving terms in blackboard equations from one side to the other, saying something like "now if we move this guy over to the other side, then we..."
I think it's a way of trying to make a dry subject slightly more accessible.
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