{
  "id": "margin.spatial",
  "term": "margin",
  "sense": "spatial",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 11,
  "arena": "parameter stability",
  "domain": "window",
  "style": "window",
  "definition": "The distance from current parameters to the nearest wall.",
  "folk_gloss": null,
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "parameter.condition",
      "wall.range-end",
      "window.range",
      "current.fluid",
      "near.spatial"
    ],
    "interaction": "The margin emerges as the buffer between a current parameter and the nearest wall of its window, indicating how much drift is possible before the parameter exits its range.",
    "novel_properties": [
      "proximity to boundary",
      "spatial buffer",
      "range tolerance"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "The International Space Station maintains a 50-kilometer buffer from orbital debris tracked by NORAD.",
      "domain": "engineering"
    },
    {
      "text": "The Hoover Dam's spillway design leaves a 23-meter margin between normal water level and the top of the structure.",
      "domain": "infrastructure"
    },
    {
      "text": "Neurons in the human cortex fire within 70 milliseconds of stimulus onset, operating just under the 100-millisecond cognitive threshold.",
      "domain": "neuroscience"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [],
  "used_by": [
    "cutting-corners.margin",
    "on-a-shoestring.margin",
    "razor-thin.margin",
    "running-lean.upkeep",
    "trimming-the-fat.margin"
  ],
  "forms": [
    "margin",
    "margins"
  ],
  "closed": false,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "retrofit:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.8,
    "sources": [
      "Sample/hundred-words-six-terms.md"
    ],
    "reconciled": {
      "by": "openrouter:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
      "date": "2026-07-31",
      "changed": "components",
      "note": "Removed 'drift.aimless' because the definition does not reference motion or change; added 'current.fluid' and 'near.spatial' as constitutive of the spatial margin in context of flow and proximity."
    }
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-margin.spatial"
}