Qualifying weights. Are they "higher", "bigger"?
In a mathematical context (e.g. when talking about a weighted average), how should I qualify the word weight? Which one should I use? "Greater", "higher" or "bigger"?
Examples:
"... and that can be achieved using greater weights for such instances?"
"... and that can be achieved using higher weights for such instances?"
"... and that can be achieved using bigger weights for such instances?"
Obs: I did read a similar question, but I not sure if it's answer can be applied here.
Solution 1:
As others have said, all three are idiomatic, and there are other options as well.
Looking at the actual usage stats from the British National Corpus (BNC) and the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), we have this:
BNC COCA
greater weight 37 138
heavier weight 11 40
higher weight 3 33
larger weight 0 5
stronger weight 1 2
bigger weight 0 2
So, on both sides of the pond, greater looks like the safest choice, while bigger is a very rare sight indeed.
And just for the sake of completeness:
BNC COCA
lighter weight 12 105
lower weight 3 54
smaller weight 2 3