"That's one small step for a man" "for man"

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Jetso
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21 Jan 2024, 9:59 pm

Neil Armstrong claimed to have said "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." But in the recording it clearly sounds like "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." which is a contradiction because "man" and "mankind" mean the same thing in this context.

It was claimed that static obscured the "a" before "man", but if that is the case, why isn't there any pause between "for" and "man"?



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21 Jan 2024, 10:57 pm

How often does the article end up as an unstressed schwa? If he said it as 'fora' rather than as a distinct stressed syllable 'for a' there wouldn't be much of a pause.


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22 Jan 2024, 11:58 am

Maybe he was so excited at landing on the Moon that his diction was slightly off? Happens to me sometimes when I'm excited. And it's probably normal and helpful to correct sayings when repeating them. I've also heard it said that when a person recalls something they've heard, the recalled version has often been unconsciously modified so as to be more coherent and logical than the original version, as if we remember the sense of what was said rather than the exact words, and then put the idea back into words again when we recall it.



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22 Jan 2024, 12:55 pm

I always figured “man” has two meanings depending on context. In this case since “man” in this context is placed in comparison to mankind the first man is intended to mean “me, this man” and the man in “mankind” is intended to mean “humans”.

Also the radio signal from the moon was more than a bit iffy. Maybe he said “a man” and you only hear “man” but I doubt that. The press was very interested in the first man on the moon and the Government was too. I am sure the words were written out for Neil and he said exactly what was written. They were probably sent to the press in a written press release just after if not before the event. The sub text is “This is easy for this American Man, but hard for anyone else in the world- take that Russia, we are Number One of all Mankind. We just Leapfrogged You.”

There is a reason USA spent all that money and it wasn’t just for unity and brotherhood.

The Missile Gap was no joke since missiles could carry nuclear warheads.


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kokopelli
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22 Jan 2024, 2:42 pm

I was told by someone with many NASA ties about thirty years ago that Armstrong's saying was scripted but he flubbed it and that the tapes were edited to make it come out the way it was scripted.

He made it sound like they replaced the entire line, but it makes more sense if they just inserted an 'a' instead.



Jetso
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22 Jan 2024, 4:01 pm

There is a pause between "one" and "giant leap for mankind." No pause at all between "for" and "man".



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22 Jan 2024, 4:06 pm

Meh. I'm still miffed that NASA failed to use the Oxford Comma in one of its earliest reports.


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22 Jan 2024, 6:28 pm

Man, that Armstrong business was just so weird.


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naturalplastic
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22 Jan 2024, 7:11 pm

Folks like me..old enough to have watched the moon landing live on TV have...been facepalming about it for over half of a century.

It made no sense the way we all heard it. He said that he flubbed the line and and meant to say that "a" before "man", and others say the "a" got muffled in the audio.

Whatever.

Maybe the line that SHOULD live on in history is what preceded it by a few seconds. "This is Tranquility Base. The Eagle has landed."



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24 Jan 2024, 1:39 am

Just be glad that it wasn't Justin Trudeau who landed on the moon. "It's one small step for people, one giant leap for peoplekind."


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24 Jan 2024, 1:42 am

CockneyRebel wrote:
Just be glad that it wasn't Justin Trudeau who landed on the moon. "It's one small step for people, one giant leap for peoplekind."


But, if he was on the moon, he wouldn't be in Parliament. :nerdy:


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Jetso
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24 Jan 2024, 2:01 pm



Jetso
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24 Jan 2024, 2:04 pm

Quote:
Recordings of Armstrong's transmission do not provide evidence for the indefinite article "a" before "man", though NASA and Armstrong insisted for years that static obscured it. Armstrong stated he would never make such a mistake, but after repeated listenings to recordings, he eventually conceded he must have dropped the "a".[133] He later said he "would hope that history would grant me leeway for dropping the syllable and understand that it was certainly intended, even if it was not said—although it might actually have been".[139] There have since been claims and counter-claims about whether acoustic analysis of the recording reveals the presence of the missing "a";[133][140] Peter Shann Ford, an Australian computer programmer, conducted a digital audio analysis and claims that Armstrong did say "a man", but the "a" was inaudible due to the limitations of communications technology of the time.[133][141][142] Ford and James R. Hansen, Armstrong's authorized biographer, presented these findings to Armstrong and NASA representatives, who conducted their own analysis.[143] Armstrong found Ford's analysis "persuasive."[144][145] Linguists David Beaver and Mark Liberman wrote of their skepticism of Ford's claims on the blog Language Log.[146] A 2016 peer-reviewed study again concluded Armstrong had included the article.[147] NASA's transcript continues to show the "a" in parentheses.[148]

When Armstrong made his proclamation, Voice of America was rebroadcast live by the BBC and many other stations worldwide. An estimated 530 million people viewed the event,[149] 20 percent out of a world population of approximately 3.6 billion.[150][151]

Q: Did you misspeak?

A: There isn't any way of knowing.

Q: Several sources say you did.

A: I mean, there isn't any way of my knowing. When I listen to the tape, I can't hear the 'a', but that doesn't mean it wasn't there, because that was the fastest VOX ever built. There was no mike-switch — it was a voice-operated key or VOX. In a helmet you find you lose a lot of syllables. Sometimes a short syllable like 'a' might not be transmitted. However, when I listen to it, I can't hear it. But the 'a' is implied, so I'm happy if they just put it in parentheses.

Omni, June 1982, p. 126



Jetso
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24 Jan 2024, 2:07 pm

Something that someone said about this in another forum.

Quote:
Why don't they just ask the guy what he said?. Rather than wasting time analysing communications?.

Interviewer: Mr Armstrong did you say "that's one small step for A man"?
Armstrong: "Yes"
Interviewer: thank you very much for your time.

hmmm... probably isn't MR, probably still has a rank.

It amazes me the amount of time people waste doing research into strange things. Some guy spent two years studying cows to see why they sit/lay down. Conclusion: because the cows are tired. Two years- for that! LOL



naturalplastic
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24 Jan 2024, 5:52 pm

CockneyRebel wrote:
Just be glad that it wasn't Justin Trudeau who landed on the moon. "It's one small step for people, one giant leap for peoplekind."


He would probably plan to say that (in this modern gender neutral world).

But under the pressure of the occasion he would probably also just jack it up at least as badly as Buzz Aldrin did, and say something like "one small zit for a pimple, and one great pop for pimple kind! DAMN...I left my glasses in Houston!" :D



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24 Jan 2024, 6:31 pm

This is why NASA never sent females to the moon; in fear of inducing immediate "man a" pause on contact with the lunar surface... :lol:


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