What does "by eyeball" mean? - English Stack Exchange

Eyeball, verb. to look at; look over; check visually. So in this context, it's often easier to solve the equation by merely looking at it. EnglishLanguage&UsageStackExchangeisaquestionandanswersiteforlinguists,etymologists,andseriousEnglishlanguageenthusiasts.Itonlytakesaminutetosignup. Signuptojointhiscommunity Anybodycanaskaquestion Anybodycananswer Thebestanswersarevotedupandrisetothetop Home Public Questions Tags Users Unanswered Teams StackOverflowforTeams –Collaborateandshareknowledgewithaprivategroup. CreateafreeTeam WhatisTeams? Teams CreatefreeTeam Teams Q&Aforwork Connectandshareknowledgewithinasinglelocationthatisstructuredandeasytosearch. Learnmore Whatdoes"byeyeball"mean?, AskQuestion Asked 5yearsago Modified 5yearsago Viewed 5ktimes 2 InthebookIamstudyingIhavefoundthefollowingsentence: Itisofteneasiertosolvetheequationbyeyeball Whatdoesbyeyeballmean? expressionsmeaning-in-context Share Improvethisquestion Follow editedMar8,2017at17:34 mattiav27 askedMar8,2017at17:25 mattiav27mattiav27 22722silverbadges77bronzebadges 1 2 Theusagefeelsabit"non-standard"tome.I'mmoreusedto[dosomething]byeye(=worksomethingoutormeasureitwithoutmechanical/procedural/etc.support).Iusuallyencounter[metaphoric?]eyeballasaverb,meaningtomakeacursoryvisualexaminationofsomething. – FumbleFingers Mar8,2017at17:59 Addacomment  |  4Answers 4 Active Oldest Votes 2 Thewordeasierisyourcluetotheeyeballmethodofthequickscan,usingaroughsurfaceassessmentinsteadofanyrigorsuchasalgebra. Example:Sayyouneedtwoequations,andyouhavex+y=3,and2x+2y=6.Byeyeball,withoutmath,youmightseeyouhavereallyonlyoneuniqueequation,andcannotsolvetheproblemyet. Definitionofeyeball: Tomeasureorestimateroughlybysight:eyeballedtheareaofthewallthatneededpaint. AmericanHeritageDictionary,5thEd. Share Improvethisanswer Follow answeredMar8,2017at17:51 YosefBaskinYosefBaskin 6,26444goldbadges1717silverbadges3131bronzebadges Addacomment  |  2 Personalvisualinspection,alongwiththeimplicationofacertainimprecisioninthemeasurement. Incontext,Iwouldsayit'sreferringtoskippingdetailedtroubleshootingstepstoidentifyandresolveaproblem,andpreferringinsteadtosimplyhavealookandseewhat'swrong. Thiscansometimeswork...andsometimesnot.Forexample,thecasein1990whenboltsmatchedbyeyeballwerethewrongsize,causinganaircraft'swindscreentoblowoutinflightandthecaptaintobesuckedoutofthecockpit(andsurvive,somehow). Share Improvethisanswer Follow answeredMar8,2017at17:42 WerrfWerrf 1,46877silverbadges1616bronzebadges Addacomment  |  1 Ipresumethemeaningreferstotheverbformofthewordeyeball. Eyeball,verb tolookat;lookover;checkvisually Sointhiscontext,it'softeneasiertosolvetheequationbymerelylookingatit. Share Improvethisanswer Follow answeredMar8,2017at17:38 J.SilverJ.Silver 10433bronzebadges Addacomment  |  0 Itmeansthatitcanbeeasiertofindthesolutionjustbyexamination,asopposedtofollowingthenormalprescribedprocedureorsolutionalgorithm. Forexample,perhapsyou'vebeentaughthowtodoausubstitution.Sometimesyou'llfindanintegralforwhichyoucanjustintuittheanswerwithouthavingtogothroughthewholerigmarole. Note,thisuseof"eyeball"isunusual.It'smorecommontouse"eyeball"(withthissamemeaning)asaverb,forexample,"Itmightbeeasiertojusteyeballit."However,eventhisisabitunusualinthemathcontext. Share Improvethisanswer Follow answeredMar9,2017at4:39 aparente001aparente001 19.7k88goldbadges4949silverbadges8989bronzebadges Addacomment  |  YourAnswer ThanksforcontributingananswertoEnglishLanguage&UsageStackExchange!Pleasebesuretoanswerthequestion.Providedetailsandshareyourresearch!Butavoid…Askingforhelp,clarification,orrespondingtootheranswers.Makingstatementsbasedonopinion;backthemupwithreferencesorpersonalexperience.Tolearnmore,seeourtipsonwritinggreatanswers. Draftsaved Draftdiscarded Signuporlogin SignupusingGoogle SignupusingFacebook SignupusingEmailandPassword Submit Postasaguest Name Email Required,butnevershown PostYourAnswer Discard Byclicking“PostYourAnswer”,youagreetoourtermsofservice,privacypolicyandcookiepolicy Nottheansweryou'relookingfor?Browseotherquestionstaggedexpressionsmeaning-in-contextoraskyourownquestion. 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