The phrase "a mere difference" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to emphasize that the difference being discussed is insignificant or trivial in the context of a larger issue.
Example: "While there are some variations in our opinions, they are really just a mere difference in perspective."
Alternatives: "a slight distinction" or "a trivial difference".
That goes beyond a mere difference of tempo, it makes the piece a radically different musical and emotional entity.
(It's pure speculation, but Walter may have conducted the piece even more swiftly in 1912, since his interpretations tended to get slower in his later musical life). That goes beyond a mere difference of tempo, it makes the piece a radically different musical and emotional entity.
Considering the stakes, the immediate cause of this bitter argument seems a trifle: a mere difference of opinion on a matter of strategy.
Under the circumstances, to advertise this as a puzzle contest instead of what it actually was cannot be attributed to a mere difference in 'nomenclature'; such conduct falls far short of that fair dealing of which fraud is the antithesis.
In other words, this new metric is more than a mere difference in semantics.
The polymer decomposition temperature (PDT, which denotes the temperature at 10%% mass loss) was observed at around 570 °C and only a mere difference of 5 °C was found between the bare PI and its ITO deposited varieties.
This interpretation is supported by two well known and long-standing observations: (1) sensitivity of development to a mere 1.5 2X difference in N gene dosage or very small differences in the level of N signaling and (2) low, uniform expression of the Notch protein throughout the embryo [10] [20].
As Refinery29 writer Sesali Bowen expressed it, glossing over Bonnie's ethnicity merely added "diversity in visibility only," presenting race "as a mere aesthetic difference between people, not one that affects how they interact with the rest of the world".
That makes mere difference, horizontal or otherwise, a hard thing to hang an identity on.
Obama is not including someone from the other side of the aisle who has a mere philosophical difference with Progressives/Liberals and who, for example, may take a different stance on Iraq or stem cell research than we do.
I'd put the Cochrane/Fama claims that government spending can't increase demand as a matter of accounting in this category; this is a basic conceptual error, which goes beyond mere difference of opinion.
