Andy...this is what I know of 'pushing the envelope'
It comes from mathematics, specifically as it is used in aeroplane design. It was popularised by Tom Wolfe’s book of 1979, The Right Stuff, about test pilots and the early space programme. It’s an excellent example of the way that a bit of specialised jargon known only to a few practitioners can move into the general language.
In mathematics, an envelope is the enclosing boundary of a set or family of curves that is touched by every curve in the system. This usage is known from the latter part of the nineteenth century. It’s also used in electrical engineering for the curve that you get when you connect the successive peaks of a wave. This envelope curve encloses or envelops all the component curves.
In aeronautics, the envelope is the outer boundary of all the curves that describe the performance of the aircraft under various conditions of engine thrust, speed, altitude, atmospheric conditions, and the like. It is generally taken to be the known limits for the safe performance of the craft.
Test pilots have to test (or push) these limits to establish exactly what the plane is capable of doing, and where failure is likely to occur—to compare calculated performance limits with ones derived from experience. Test pilots called this pushing the edge of the envelope in the 1950s and 1960s, but this was soon shortened.
Following Tom Wolfe’s book and film, the phrase began to move out into the wider world; the first recorded use in the more general sense of going (or attempting to go) beyond the limits of what is known to be possible came in the late 1980s.
so yes......you were correct....and so was I.
Can I please have some BEvERages????
I can't stand being a 'Duck Butt'
Yeh, but aeronautics got the word "envelope" because they actually use an envelope to deliver the performance of the aircraft to the pilot. Tom Wolfe might have "popularized" the term but it was there before 1979.
It's funny you should mention that JH. about 6 weekends ago I was out back at Miguel's sitting under the tins roof and some guy with a ring in his nose mentioned that same medical procedure as a name for anew route. Of course,he also described in nauseating detail that it was caused by frequent anal sex. Are you and he the same? Does it matter?Is this the twilight zone? I am relieved tp know I can now tell my proctologist that my anal fishers were caused by mmnnnnhhhh large stools
I try to be a good man but all that comes
of trying is I feel more guilty.
Ikkyu
onto QUESTION #1 for the day, lets keep it simple and lame at the same time I know there are at least 65% of the users on this site that don't know what this is:
What does BCC stand for in your email compose box?