Learn English – The difference between medium and intermediate

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I wish to know the difference between medium and intermediate.

There is an academic use for me trying to describe a physical parameter (a coupling constant of interactions) which is not too strong, but not too weak.

Should one use medium coupling or intermediate coupling?

medium strength or intermediate strength?

Many thanks.

Best Answer

I generally think of medium as being of some sort of the middle of a static range, (statistically it is defined as the value halfway between the mininum and maximum values), such as being of medium height, while intermediate is about the middle of a process such as the intermediate level music examinations are what you would have to pass through to get from beginner level to advanced level.

The other important point is that a given case may have several intermediate levels or states but will only have one medium point.

The other difference is that a specific sample might not contain any of the medium value but a range of states must pass through the intermediate value as they progress.

To use them in a physics sense I would say:

  • in a set of samples for stress testing a medium sheer point of 10 N was found but
  • in all samples 7 N was found to be an intermediate point between the elastic limit and the sheer point.

In your coupling context I would say that possibly single a system can be strongly coupled or weakly coupled and has one or more intermediate levels of coupling but if each of a set of systems can only have one level of coupling then the middle level between the highest and lowest will be medium coupling.

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