[Vocabulary] the term "paid back"

[Zé Bianchi]

I have been reading an article on a subject I'm doing some research and I came across the term "paid back", used in the sentence "Carefully weighed 10 mg gallic acid, then dissolved indistilled water and paid back the volume up to 10 ml toobtain a level of 1 mg / ml as a stock solution." I can't understand what "paid back" means there, if someone would explain that to me. Thanks in advance.

 

[probus]

It would not be considered natural in everyday English usage, but in international scientific usage I think it is acceptable. In that rare context "pay back" just means to add sufficient distilled water to bring the volume of the solution up to 10 ml.

Having said that about the English, I am in some doubt about the math. Can you really dissolve 10 mg of gallic acid in less than 10 ml of water? Maybe, but it seems unlikely to me. And if you could and did, would the resulting solution be less than 10 ml in volume?

 

[Zé Bianchi]

Yeah. You could dissolve up to 0,11g of gallic acid in 10mL of water. And thanks for answering.

 

[tedmc]

'Pay back' used in that context is new to me. I would use 'make up' or 'top up'
It seems strange to me that the directions in a scientific experiment are written in the past tense.
What article is that and who is the author?

not a teacher

 

[Tdol]

I've done a few searches for the term and there are some texts that use it, but I could only find a very few, and most were repeating the same texts. I would be a bit wary of the usage because there are so few examples.

 

[Mrfatso]

'Pay back' used in that context is new to me. I would use 'make up' or 'top up'
It seems strange to me that the directions in a scientific experiment are written in the past tense.
What article is that and who is the author?

not a teacher

Not A Teacher

It is a well known convention that in writing the methods for scientific experiments that they are done in the past tense.
For example in this guide from MIT.

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/biologic...g-fall-2007/assignments/guide_lab_report-htm/

"The Materials and Methods section should be written in the past tense, since your experiments are completed at the time you are writing your paper."

 

[tedmc]

"The Materials and Methods section should be written in the past tense, since your experiments are completed at the time you are writing your paper."

"Carefully weighed 10 mg gallic acid, then dissolved indistilled water and paid back the volume up to 10 ml to obtain a level of 1 mg / ml as a stock solution."

The above text posted by OP looks more like directions for an experiment like those you find in a cooking recipe, not a report on an experiment carried out by the writer. Don't you think so?

not a teacher

 

[emsr2d2]

If it were directions, it would be written in the present tense. "Carefully weigh 10mg gallic acid, then dissolve indistilled water and pay back ...". Directions are always written using the imperative.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I would use "replace" rather than "pay back".

 

[Tdol]

I would use "replace" rather than "pay back".

As a scientist, have you come across pay back?

 

[Zé Bianchi]

'Pay back' used in that context is new to me. I would use 'make up' or 'top up'
It seems strange to me that the directions in a scientific experiment are written in the past tense.
What article is that and who is the author?

not a teacher

I found the report here: http://www.ijstr.org/final-print/se...ation-With-Concentration-Organic-Solvents.pdf

 

[SoothingDave]

I don't see what it's "replacing."

The important thing is to end up with 10 ml of solution.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Not in this context.