So gays, I recently had the need to describe a (possibly proper) subset of a polycule with a term. I improvised with polycouple ("a couple of X" can be more than 2) but maybe there's a better term?
We could look at molecules for inspiration again. Is there a term for parts of a partition of a molecule that may span more than just one atom?
Well covalent bonds are electrons that are shared between atoms in a molecule, ionic bonds are where a Element such as Sodium Na, loses and Electron to become an ion Na+ + e- then this electron joins another atom eg Chlorine Cl- to form an ionic bond NaCl.
I am not sure if this is quite what you mean though.
@zleap It's exactly what I was asking for, thank you! :)
No idea whether this can in the end be used, but I like the idea of covalent polycule members in contrast to members of the same polycule who do not share bonds/partners (e.g., A & B and B & C have a relationship, but not A & C). This is a useful notion indeed!
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Functional groups are regions of molecules that have their own distinct properties. These can be ionic (like the phosphate group) and thus these regions of molecules can interact across molecules.
Personally I think a much richer metaphors to dig into would be graph theory. It naturally and well describes polycule dynamics and has rich terminology to describe all the sorts of concepts you would like. For example the technical term for a couple that can be larger than just 2 people would be a clique.
@freemo @zleap Ohhh this is getting much more serious than I expected and I love every bit of it!
And indeed, graphs are much more well-suited to describe polycules (and a meeting of polycules, a forest). We could even discuss certain practical implications like variations of min cut problems: "given a fall out between this set of people and their relationships of depth N, what's the minimum number of edges to cut to get two polycules that do not internally hate each other?" :'-D
That being said, the initial idea to use molecule-inspired terminology stems purely from the name polycule itself, being a portmanteau of polyamory and molecule. It's probably not helpful to stick to terms of related concepts for this though!
@freemo @ljrk
Indeed, I understand what Polycule means now. With chemistry, we also have isomers (same atoms, different structure) and stereo isomers, which (if I remember correctly) 2 molecules one of which is a mirror image of the other. But if I understand it the properties are different too.