When comparing the total surface area of (geometrical) bodies, can I describe it as “large surface” (or “largest”) or, as an editor suggested, do I have to use “broad surface”?
Edit:
Example sentence from the article:
“Porous, spongy grains provide a large surface for chemical reactions but might hinder the release of the newly formed species into the gas phase.”Another example:
“Additionally, the significantly larger dust surface in the XX and YY model lead to …”
here XX and YY denote dust models with differen dust size distributions and accordingly with different total surface area of the grains.
The editor suggested to replace large by broad.
Answer
A broad surface is one where one dimension (side) is particularly large compared to the other. A rectangle with one side much more than the other is a broad surface (breadth: units of linear measure).
By contrast, a large surface is one where both the dimensions (sides) are more than usual such that it has a large area (area: units of square measure).
In the specific case, total surface area depends on both the sides, and as such it would be referred to as a large surface.
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : Markus Roellig , Answer Author : Kris
