6 ms·
Overly pedantic quibble: a quantum of anything is the minimum possible unit. One planck length, time, mass, charge, temperature. Everybody uses it to mean "big
by dsr_ 9y ago
Overly pedantic quibble: a quantum of anything is the minimum possible unit. One planck length, time, mass, charge, temperature.
Everybody uses it to mean "big". Oh, language.
- dmix 9y agoBut is a "Quantum leap" really equivalent to leaping one planck? Honest question. I assumed it implied something far 'larger' such as a leap through spacetime...
- aidenn0 9y agoI believe the term originally applied to electron energy level transitions within an atom, which only vaguely correlates with anything one might call distance. The interesting thing there was that the electrons existed only at discrete energy levels, and the transition between them appeared instantaneous.
- ianai 9y agoI always assumed that sprang from the tv show with that name.
- white-flame 9y agoA quantum leap is a discontinuity, a change that cannot happen gradually. It typically implies a revolutionary change over evolutionary improvement.
- taneq 9y ago"Quantum leap" is typically interpreted as "big leap" but I believe the true implication is more like "indivisible leap", in line with your quibble. A Turing-complete computer is a "quantum leap" ahead of a non-Turing-complete calculator. A warp drive is a "quantum leap" ahead of a reaction drive. You either have all of it or none of it.
- quickthrower2 9y agoI know who we should ask: Ziggy
- beobab 9y agoI loved that show so much! It was ages after Enterprise came out that I stopped expecting Captain Archer to say "Oh boy!" just before the main title.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- rusk 9y agoQuantum leap is an increase in the units, or “quanta” you use to measure something i.e. MHz to GHz - the term doesn’t relate directly to quantum mechanics
- dsr_ 9y agoIn your example you are using the same units - Hertz, one cycle per second - and adding SI prefixes for million X and billion X.
- rusk 9y agoYes, but the "quantum" has increased by order of magnitude. The point is, that the increase in frequency is so large, that using MHz is no longer sensible. There has been a "quantum leap" in frequency.
- vesinisa 9y agoIn this case, I actually used it purposefully. Hitting on quantum mechanical limits are in part holding us from infinitely increasing the information density on HDDs and SSDs.