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Taka Posted 21 years ago
Grammar

Acting upon

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00 An insect performs no miracle in walking up a wall or uopn the surface of a pond; the small force of gravity pulling it down or under is easily overcome by the surface forces which act to keep it in position. Throw an insect off the roof and it floats gently down as the forces of friction from the air 11b10 acting upon 12b10 its surface overcome the weak influence of gravity. 12blockquote
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00Which word does 'acting upon' modify' here? 02br
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00I think it's 'the forces (of friction)', but my book says it's 'the air'... 0-
  

Top answer

0 with the present punctuation, I'd say that 'acting upon' refers to 'the air'. 0-

— Amandine

  • 0 with the present punctuation, I'd say that 'acting upon' refers to 'the air'.
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18 Answers
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0 with the present punctuation, I'd say that 'acting upon' refers to 'the air'. 0-
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0 I'd agree with Taka - 02br
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00a force of friction could act upon your skin 02br
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00air itself does not act upon your skin 0-
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0 Hi guys, 02br
00I agree with Amandine. It's a matter of punctuation. 02br
00Either way, the meaning is almost identical. 02br
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00a force of friction could act upon your skin 12br
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10air itself does not act upon your skin 12blockquote
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00Perhaps we are getting away from gramm
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0 Clive, what exactlly do you mean by 'punctuation' here? I mean, there is no comma, semmicolon, or anything like that. 02br
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00------ 02br
00The original writing has this sentence in the same paragraph: 01blockquote
00 Since our relative surface area is so small at our large size, we are ruled by 11b10 11u10 the forces
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0It's "forces". End of story. 050010id1
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0 Hi, 02br
00Well, when you look at the second sentence you added, the writer is clearly talking about forces, so this extra information suggests that was also his intent in the original sentence. 02br
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00But if you just look at the original sentence, the meaning still seems a bit ambiguous to me and I'm inclined to say that the phrase 'the air acting upon it
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0 Sorry, Clive. Could you please elaborate this phrase of yours? 01blockquote
00 the existing way it's punctuated 12blockquote
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00To my eyes, there is no punctuation exsisting in the original sentence... 0-
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0 Dear Taka, 02br
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00«friction» is the effect of «movement through air» on the surface of the insect. 02br
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00It may be rewritten:- 02br
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00"as the forces of friction, caused by movement through air, overcome the weak influence of gravity" 02br
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00Kind regards, 05002br
00Goldmund 01
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0 So, your idea is that 'acting upon' refers to 'the air'. Right, goldmund? 0-
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0 Dear Taka, 02br
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00Yes, that is my opinion. 02br
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00The body moves through air. The effect of movement through air is friction. The friction slows the movement of the body. The friction therefore «overcomes gravity». 02br
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00The writer means: friction is the action of air on the moving body. 02br
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