*is Cat*

[pepper]

Writing Sam POV often means I need to go in search of some proper scientific words for things, which is a bit frustrating when I find it hard enough to remember ordinary words - when called upon to verbalise 'fridge', for example, my brain is likely to seize up and go, "Um, that thing, large, white, keeps stuff cool, sits in the kitchen... You know. The thing." This is why I prefer to write rather than speak, because at least with writing I can stop and think about it without people getting impatient and completing my sentences with entirely the wrong words.

But I digress.

What I mean to say is, I have a new favourite scientific phrase (just ousting Quantum foam), which I intend to wedge into a fic if I possibly can: the Airy wave theory, so called because it was first published by George Biddell Airy, and it's about waves.

Awesome.

I still haven't found what I'm looking for, though. What do you call the something-or-other just before a moving object? The... air displacement, water displacement, the warning shivers before a full earthquake, the tiny sliver of air pushed out in front of a car or a plane, the crinkles on the surface of a blob of jam when you push it with a finger to test if it's set and you can stop boiling it...

You know. The thing.