Think of something that has a stationary version and a portable version. Was the item that you thought of an item that is smaller when it’s portable? In many cases, the answer to that question will be yes. (For example, your iPod is a portable music library that is smaller than the stereo and set of CDs that you have at home.) However, not all portable items are smaller than their stationary counterparts. In fact, in some cases, the portable version of the item may even be quite a bit larger.

An example of this type of item would be a portable screener. This is a device that is used to sift through dirt and gravel in a garden or yard. The handheld or stationary equivalent of the portable screener is a compost screen. A compost screen has to be fairly small since you will be holding it by hand. In contrast, the portable screener is a machine which can sift through a lot of dirt at one time. In this case, the portable version of the item is larger.

In other cases, the portable item and the stationary item might be the same. A bicycle is a terrific example of this. The stationary bike for home exercise and the portable bike for outdoor exercise are almost always the same approximate size. So, as you can see, portable doesn’t mean anything about the size of an item even though we often assume that it does.

Technorati Tags: compost screen, portable screener