Reader question: Please explain this sentence: These results do not square with expert predictions. My comments: Are we talking about election predictions and results here? If so and if the results do not square with expert predictions, the predictions were simply wrong. In other words, the wrong people won. I mean to say, of course, the experts were wrong (with their predictions). Or if we are talking about experiments of a scientific nature and if the experiment results do not square with expert predictions, then we need more experiments to make certain. In this case, either the expert predictions were wrong or something went wrong during the course of the experiments, which resulted in, well, wrong results. More experiments, please. Anyways, if two things do square with each other, they do not perfectly match. A square is a shape with four straight equal sides. In other words, the four lines on the side need to be perfectly equal in length. Because of this, we see that all squares look the same in shape (form). Hence, if we say something squares with another, we understand that they match or conform (similar in form) with each other. On they other hand, if they do not square with each other, they do not match and therefore are different, incompatible. The police sometimes say that some witness’s account does not square with that of another. That means their stories are different. One of them may be lying. |