the.com/refinement
the slow art of deleting everything that isn't the point.
means The process of improving something by removing flaws, impurities, or excess until only the better, purer version remains.
from From Latin 'finis' — an end, a limit, a boundary. The 'fine' inside 'refinement' is the same 'fine' that means both 'high quality' and 'a thing brought to its proper conclusion.' To 'refine' (via French 'raffiner', built on 're-' + 'fin') was literally to bring metal or sugar to its finest state by burning off the dross. The word carried that sense of purification through fire into the abstract: to refine a manner, a sentence, or an idea is to keep boiling away what isn't essential until you reach the bottom of it.
- oil origin
- crude becomes gasoline by sorting molecules by boiling point
- sugar truth
- refined sugar is stripped of every nutrient it once had
- etymology
- from Latin 'finis,' to make finer toward an end
- design law
- perfection is when nothing's left to take away
- gold standard
- refined gold reaches 99.99 percent purity, called four nines
crude oil refining — converting 100 million barrels per day globally into gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel
sugar refining — processing sugarcane into white crystals, major industry in brazil and india since the 1600s
metal refining — purifying copper ore to 99.99% purity at codelco in chile, world's largest copper producer