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Re: Quantum Leap



Well, I haven't heard anyone espouse my understanding yet, so I'll leap
in.

When people are trying to understand something, or when a team is
trying to design something, etc. the understanding and/or design tends
to evolve as a fairly continuous process.

However, when someone has an "aha" experience, or someone on the design
team has a "flash of inspiration," or manages to get the team to look
at something in a new way, our understanding/design might leap forward.
In doing so it can "leap" past many infinitesimal steps that the team
might have gone through to get to the same point (much later in time)
had the "aha" experience not taken place.

That, is a quantum leap.

I think this is perfectly rationale and is congruent with the usual
physics definition. Scientific quantum jumps are huge compared to the
infinitesimal transitions that we originally thought were possible. It
is truly unfortunate that committees do not yet understand quantum
behavior. They seem to think they must explore every infinitesimal
path, and hence they proceed at a snails pace. Oh, that I could get
them to take a quantum leap once in a while!

Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D. Phone/voice-mail: 419-358-3270
Professor of Chemistry & Physics FAX: 419-358-3323
Chairman, Science Department E-Mail edmiston@bluffton.edu
Bluffton College
280 West College Avenue
Bluffton, OH 45817