Re: Nuclear topics in physics?

["John S. Denker" <jsd@MONMOUTH.COM>]

I wrote:
> Not checking the alpha-decay prediction seems analogous
> to writing down the model
>         all odd numbers are prime
> and saying the model is OK because we didn't bother
> to check it for numbers greater than 8.

Actually that analogy is backwards:  The barrier-penetration
model is incomparably _more_ accurate for alpha decay than
it is for fission.

So it's really perverse to use barrier-penetration to
describe fission and not alpha decay.

(I've tried to come up with a correspondingly-perverse
analogy, without complete success.  Maybe something along
the lines of "if your only tool is a hammer, everything
starts to look like a nail" but worse:  hammering on an
inappropriate thing while passing up the opportunity to
hammer on the only real nail in sight.)