scale error
n.— «“Scale error” is the researchers’ newly coined term for “remarkable behaviors” of children who attempt impossible feats with small objects, such as sliding down a toy slide suitable only for dolls.» —“Symbol recognition Sizing up brain’s development a matter of child’s play” by Keay Davidson San Francisco Chronicle May 31, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
What if, instead of being an inanimate object, a dictionary were alive? That’s the idea behind a lavishly illustrated new children’s book called The Dictionary Story (Bookshop|Amazon) by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston. This is part of a...
Asthenosphere, a geologist’s term for the molten layer beneath the earth’s crust, sparks a journey that stretches all the way from ancient Greece to the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Plus: What the heck is a dogberg? It’s when...