5 ms·
Another fun one: Fermi's definition of "remote possibility" as a chance of no more than 1 in 10. (Scary when talking about the odds of initiating a chain reacti
by jmount 8y ago
Another fun one: Fermi's definition of "remote possibility" as a chance of no more than 1 in 10. (Scary when talking about the odds of initiating a chain reaction, making a small atomic weapon, or even igniting the atmosphere in the first atomic test.)
https://books.google.com/books?id=2G2TlJOhGI8C&pg=PA280&lpg=PA280#v=onepage&q&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=2G2TlJOhGI8C&pg=PA280&lpg=...
- hueving 8y ago0 in 10 is still "no more than 1 in 10", so I don't see why that's scary.
- fjsolwmv 8y ago0.9 in 10 is also no more than 1 in 10.
- hueving 8y agoRight, but I'm suggesting that the odds of lighting the atmosphere on fire were calculated to be much lower than 1 in 10, but there just wasn't a 'simple English' category to distinguish them. So I wouldn't get scared until I saw something that suggested it was anywhere near 1 in 10.