×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Rebsr

Rebsr

(OP)
I thought the word for rebar was both singular and plural. Have things changed or was I mistaken?

Mike McCann, PE, SE (WA)


RE: Rebsr

If you trust Merriam-Webster, apparently the plural can be either rebar or rebars. I've never heard "rebars" used, but then again I don't work in an industry that uses or specifies it...

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rebar

RE: Rebsr

I always thought that rebar was specified either by weight or length. Therefore I would suspect that the term 'rebar' would be used, as in "300 lbs of #4, grade 40, rebar" or "16 30 foot sections of #4, grade 40, rebar".

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Digital Factory
Cypress, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

RE: Rebsr

There are two industries I know of that use rebar: construction and computing.

In MS Windows, a rebar is basically a moveable toolbar or toolband. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/de... It was probably called a rebar because "it sat on top of a window". It can also sit on the side or under a window but they didn't think about that when they named it. In computing, programmers will use rebars and toolbars interchangeably and rightly or wrongly, they have added an s to the end of the word.

RE: Rebsr

"Tie those two rebars into that ligature"

or

"Tie those two rebar into that ligature"

I know which one sounds better to me!

http://julianh72.blogspot.com

RE: Rebsr

I work in the materials inspection industry in the US, and I hear the word "rebar" used only as a collective plural noun for reinforcing steel bars. When a specific individual piece of rebar is indicated, it is usually the singular noun "bar" or "piece of rebar". For example: "We are expecting the #9 rebar to be delivered tomorrow" [collective plural] OR "Tie those #9 bars to the mat" / "Get that piece of rebar off of the deck" [specific individual]. When someone says "rebars" it really stands out as sounding amateurish.

RE: Rebsr

Since "rebar" is a contraction of "reinforcing bar", I'd guess that the rules for the original long form can still apply: "rebars" for plural.

STF

RE: Rebsr

No sparweb, no. Custom and practice have their place, and your post makes you sound like some kind of Aeronautical engineer... (I kid, gently, I hope).

RE: Rebsr

CEL,
Don't you know how hard it is to interact with all you so-called-engineers from inferior industries, stepping carefully around your hodge-podge rules of thumb and 19th century ways? Some days it's all I can do not to admonish you guys for not being more like us members of this more elevated discipline, aerospace, which is firmly rooted in the 20th century, like it should be!

Right now I need an animated smiley GIF that shows an aeronautical engineer building the rocket, and a civil engineer building the target.

STF

RE: Rebsr

Hahahaha.... Love it.

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources