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What your saying is that my statement about Trenton (which, of course, theologically, we call "Hell") is precise because the degree of precision of the locating term was sufficiently broad.

LOL! Someone doesn't have a very high opinion of New Jersey! :) Anyway, whatever I'm trying to say, I hope it's not as circular as that. The statement is precise in that there is no confusion or ambiguity, regardless of how broad or narrow the claim might be. It seems that we're talking about different meanings of "precise", and I think that's what led to such a circular definition.

As for Trenton, I confess I'm not above taking potshots at places that deservedly or not, have become the butt of jokes. I will say that every time I drove from the Souf to visit my parents and got to the world famous stretch of the Jersey Pike, I began to sing Blake's hymn about "And was Jerusalem builded here // Among these dark satanic mills."

As for the rest, I hope I didn't convey that I was thinking you were circular. Not at all.

I guess MY usage is that accurate is equivalent to "true" while "precise" is about we might call "exactitude". So by that usage a thing could be precise but inaccurate, and one reason we called it "inaccurate" MIGHT be that it attempted too great a degree of precision. For example: ".22 calibre" is accurately said to be 22/100s of an inch, but calling it, um 220000/1000000s of an inch might be inaccurate because the attempt at precision went too far and a bullet which was 219999/1000000s of an inch would often be found in a box of .22 longs. Also calling .22 calibre 38/hundredths of an inch would be inaccurate. Calling them both "less than 1/2 an inch" would be accurate, but not very precise.

I'm NOT saying I'm right here. I'm just trying to convey what I, possibly mistakenly, mean by the terms.

One reason I'm not perfectly (or precisely) confident in my use of the terms is that this summer I was a "special teacher" for a totally cool class of underprivileged but smart as whips kids doing science. My contribution was to shoot up my falling apart American Heritage Dictionary, the one with the picture of Marilyn Monroe as the illustration for decolletage -- it broke my heart when it started falling apart. It was quite dramatic, even though I had to shoot it up at home, because guns aren't allowed on the university campus in case someone might save a life with them.

I shot 4 Full Metal Jacket and 4 Hollow Points - the ones I used as a deputy. The FMJs ALL went through and through, while the HPs all failed to penetrate the entire dictionary but sho' tore up what they DID penetrate.

We also did the math to show a fast ball packs more energy than my .357 Sig rounds do.

ANyway .... the teacher seemed to go with your usage rather than mine. SO what do I know?