this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2023
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No Stupid Questions
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There is no such thing as a Stupid Question!
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- ex. How do I change oil
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I always assumed semi meant "some fraction of a whole" and "hemi" meant exactly half.
For example, semi truck, semi colon, and even semester aren't "half" a truck, colon, or school year. But they are fractions of one.
"Semi truck" is not half a truck, but a truck designed to carry one half the weight of the cargo it is hauling. A semi trailer is one designed to have half of its load (by weight) carried by the tow vehicle. A standard trailer gets difficult and possibly dangerous to tow if the weight carried by the tow vehicle (hitch weight) strays too far outside the 8%-12% range.
And just to add to the confusion, Dodge popularized something called the "hemi engine"--an engine with a "hemi head", not half an engine. And "hemi head" refers not to "1/2 an engine head" but to the approximately hemispherical (1/2 sphere) shape of the combustion chambers cast/machined into the engine head.