mohuyu:
AntonioBunkeras:
PRIESTESS:
I beg to disagree. A piece, by definition, cannot be an unlimited quantity!
A piece is a piece, a limited portion of something, small piece, big piece...piece of string, piece of rope, piece of meat, piece of chocolate, piece o land, piece of cake... etc.
Depends on how you think about it - you can spend ages measuring the "length" with rulers, lasers maybe even trying to cound how many atoms in the rope. Since there are virtually unlimited levels of accuracy you can measure the length to - there is no definate answer. Some may even argue that it is infinite.
You cannot walk into a store and say "please give me a piece", you will inevitably get the reply, " a piece of what?" A piece is always a part, portion of something, so therefore, it is a measurable limited quantity of that something.
I believe the question "how long is a piece of rope?" has NO logical answer, simply because the indefinite article "a" is used, you cannot measure something without knowing what it is. It's the same as saying, how much does a stone weigh?