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Old 28-March-2003, 04:07 PM
SollyLama SollyLama is offline
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Default More misuse of the word Quantum

Watching Geraldo Rivera reporting from Northern Iraq with the 101st. Referring to the very rapid build up of Air Mobile forces in the area:

"The force here keeps growing at quantum levels"

Huh? Saddam doesn't have much to worry about at that pace of deployment. What is a quantum subdivision of a soldier? Is that like .000000004 % of a troop?
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Old 28-March-2003, 04:16 PM
sacrelicious sacrelicious is offline
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not a bright one, that rivera.
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Old 28-March-2003, 05:07 PM
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kilopi kilopi is offline
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Default Re: More misuse of the word Quantum

Quote:
Originally Posted by SollyLama
What is a quantum subdivision of a soldier?
A brigade?
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Old 28-March-2003, 05:59 PM
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Seems to me the quantum size of an army is one soldier. So, I guess Gerry's trying to say, a new guy showed up today.
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Old 28-March-2003, 09:11 PM
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Darkwing Darkwing is offline
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Default Not that I'm trying to defend Geraldo or anything...

But one interpretation is not that he used quantum to mean "small, individual amounts", but rather "discrete" amounts.

E.g., One solder arriving every minute for a whole day could be likened to a continuous stream.

Having multiple groups of many soldiers arriving together at different times would cause the total number of soldiers present to undergo discrete (or "quantum") increases. E.g., 1000 soldiers arrive at noon, followed by 1500 more soldiers at 8pm, followed by 800 the following morning, etc... Each sudden arrival of many soldiers constitutes a "quantum" jump in the total number present.
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Old 28-March-2003, 09:16 PM
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Default Re: Not that I'm trying to defend Geraldo or anything...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Darkwing
But one interpretation is not that he used quantum to mean "small, individual amounts", but rather "discrete" amounts.
Kind of makes it meaningless, then. I mean, you're not going to have pi/4 soldiers reporting for duty. You have a Planck's constant of one soldier.
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Old 28-March-2003, 09:22 PM
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Maybe Geraldo's Constant is more than one.
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Old 28-March-2003, 10:45 PM
SollyLama SollyLama is offline
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Geraldo needs to stick to getting his nose broken by neo-nazi's. The grandfather of shows like Jerry Springer lacks in credibility, IMO.
Soldiers do have an Event Horizon- the range limits of their weapons. Get within that zone and see a hundred little events coming at you from the barrel of an M249 Squad Automatic Weapon!
And you've never seen a black hole until you've visited a makeshift field latrine!!!!! <shudder>
Of course the talking heads on the news keep saying that our military technology is LIGHTYEARS ahead of where it was in '91.
I was unaware we had established a forward base on Proxima Centauri. Talk about an over-extended supply line!
I've also seen one reporter on an aircraft carrier say that the pilots are subjected to "a hundred G's" when they land!
I think the BA needs to drop a resume at CNN. Well, they seem to pander to the Pet Psychic, so maybe he'd do better on Fox News or MSNBC.
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Old 28-March-2003, 11:27 PM
beskeptical beskeptical is offline
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But a quantum leap sounds big!
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