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Re: [News] Microsoft /et al/ Go for Business at Communist Vietnam

  • Subject: Re: [News] Microsoft /et al/ Go for Business at Communist Vietnam
  • From: Mark Kent <mark.kent@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sat, 18 Nov 2006 19:01:31 +0000
  • Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
  • References: <27713308.Z4PJuNrRXM@schestowitz.com> <4s74goFucq4bU1@mid.individual.net> <pan.2006.11.18.13.33.23.863470@nowhere.org> <r5s334-678.ln1@ellandroad.demon.co.uk> <pan.2006.11.18.18.54.15.403223@nowhere.org>
  • User-agent: slrn/0.9.7.4 (Linux)
  • Xref: news.mcc.ac.uk comp.os.linux.advocacy:1183861
begin  oe_protect.scr 
bugbuster <bugbuster@xxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> On Sat, 18 Nov 2006 17:23:39 +0000, Mark Kent wrote:
> 
>> begin  oe_protect.scr 
>> bugbuster <bugbuster@xxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
>>> On Sat, 18 Nov 2006 01:04:00 +0000, B Gruff wrote:
>>> 
>>>> On Friday 17 November 2006 21:09 Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> ----[ Quote ]
>>>>> | "Vietnam has demonstrated to the world its capacity for quantum leaps,"
>>>> 
>>>> I don't understand that Roy - maybe you can explain.
>>>> I thought that quantum meant something like "the smallest discrete amount
>>>> possible".
>>>> Aren't quantum leaps so small that we can't measure them?
>>> 
>>> Some of the definitions of quantum leap:
>>> 
>>> "any sudden and significant change, advance, or increase."
>>> 
>>> "An abrupt change or step, especially in method, information, or knowledge"
>>> 
>>> "A dramatic advance, especially in knowledge or method"
>>> 
>>> http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/quantum%20leap
>>> 
>> 
>> Which rather proves Roy's point.  Quantum leap is a phsyics term, which
>> has been adopted by laymen, but the meaning has been reversed in doing
>> so.  In physics, there's nowt nearer than the next quantum state.  You
>> cannot move a lesser distance, because it would take /too much/ energy
>> (approximation of energy levels for laymen).
>> 
>> It's a bit like saying "I could care less" means "I couldn't care
>> less"..., except, in real English, of course, there are so many
>> versions, like "I couldn't give a monkey's", "I couldn't give a toss", I
>> couldn't give a f*ck", and so on.
> 
> The physics term and the laymen term do have one thing in common.  That
> is a sudden discrete change.  It's not the size of the change that matters.   
> 

True enough, but for those of us who've studied physics to the level
where "quantum" has a particular meaning, then there is a reversal of
sense which, when I first came across the common usage, takes some time
to grasp.  I genuinely misunderstood someone - I thought she meant a
small change, not a big one, although this was a good decade ago!

-- 
| Mark Kent   --   mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk  |
In just seven days, I can make you a man!
		-- The Rocky Horror Picture Show

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