Glossary entry (derived from question below)
Russian term or phrase:
средняя, сферическая в вакууме, (задача)
English translation:
hypothetical (task)
- The asker opted for community grading. The question was closed on 2018-07-08 06:54:11 based on peer agreement (or, if there were too few peer comments, asker preference.)
Jul 5, 2018 02:10
5 yrs ago
1 viewer *
Russian term
Solid grasp of languages: British style
Native in: English 
Works in: Russian to English, German to English, Italian to English, and 2 more.
средняя, сферическая в вакууме, задача
Russian to English
Tech/Engineering
IT (Information Technology)
This appears to be a metaphorical phrase, meaning "average" in terms of practical experiments. What would be an English equivalent?
Proposed translations
(English)
| 4 | a purely abstract problem / a purely theoretical problem |
Lazyt3ch
|
Proposed translations
30 mins
Selected
a purely abstract problem / a purely theoretical problem
Научный юмор — Википедия
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Сферический_конь_в_вакууме
Spherical cow - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_cow
Google links:
"сферическая в вакууме, задача"
https://www.google.com/search?q="сферическая в вакууме, зада...
"a purely abstract problem"
https://www.google.com/search?q="a purely abstract problem"
"a purely theoretical problem"
https://www.google.com/search?q="a purely theoretical proble...
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Note added at 43 mins (2018-07-05 02:53:54 GMT)
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Another option:
a common spherical cow problem / a common spherical chicken problem
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Note added at 45 mins (2018-07-05 02:55:41 GMT)
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I believe that in this case средняя means обычная, заурядная.
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Note added at 1 hr (2018-07-05 03:19:34 GMT)
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Sorry, it looks like I misunderstood what you said: Not the problem but its complexity is средняя, сферическая в вакууме!
Correction:
средняя, сферическая в вакууме, задача
->
a run-of-the-mill problem
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Note added at 1 hr (2018-07-05 03:22:55 GMT)
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I mean you don’t need to translate сферическая в вакууме because it’s just an extravagant way to say that the problem is nothing special.
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Note added at 5 hrs (2018-07-05 07:38:01 GMT)
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Sorry, I did not mean a hypothetical problem. The phrase сферический конь в вакууме, among other things, can refer to a complex real-life problem that has been grossly oversimplified and reduced to a purely theoretical problem that can be more easily tackled using available (for example, mathematical) methods.
But, as I said above, now I believe that in this case, средняя, сферическая в вакууме simply means nothing special, perfectly average, or something like that.
Google link:
"сферическая в вакууме"
https://www.google.com/search?q="сферическая в вакууме"
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Сферический_конь_в_вакууме
Spherical cow - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_cow
Google links:
"сферическая в вакууме, задача"
https://www.google.com/search?q="сферическая в вакууме, зада...
"a purely abstract problem"
https://www.google.com/search?q="a purely abstract problem"
"a purely theoretical problem"
https://www.google.com/search?q="a purely theoretical proble...
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 43 mins (2018-07-05 02:53:54 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Another option:
a common spherical cow problem / a common spherical chicken problem
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 45 mins (2018-07-05 02:55:41 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
I believe that in this case средняя means обычная, заурядная.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2018-07-05 03:19:34 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Sorry, it looks like I misunderstood what you said: Not the problem but its complexity is средняя, сферическая в вакууме!
Correction:
средняя, сферическая в вакууме, задача
->
a run-of-the-mill problem
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2018-07-05 03:22:55 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
I mean you don’t need to translate сферическая в вакууме because it’s just an extravagant way to say that the problem is nothing special.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 5 hrs (2018-07-05 07:38:01 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Sorry, I did not mean a hypothetical problem. The phrase сферический конь в вакууме, among other things, can refer to a complex real-life problem that has been grossly oversimplified and reduced to a purely theoretical problem that can be more easily tackled using available (for example, mathematical) methods.
But, as I said above, now I believe that in this case, средняя, сферическая в вакууме simply means nothing special, perfectly average, or something like that.
Google link:
"сферическая в вакууме"
https://www.google.com/search?q="сферическая в вакууме"
Note from asker:
| Thanks for your additional thoughts. In the context I am dealing with what is being described is an 'average' task in the sense of a hypothetical average task (not any specific one). So I should probably have qualified it to say, "hypothetical average". |
3 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "This is the most helpful answer, although, based on your advice, I opted for "hypothetical" as the force of what is intended here. "
Discussion
Несколько примеров по гуглоссылке:
"средняя, сферическая в вакууме"
https://www.google.com/search?q="средняя, сферическая в ваку...