Re: [asa] Radioactive decay of U-238 is imminent (just wait a few billion years)

I will stop being nice to you Murray:)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Murray Hogg" <muzhogg@netspace.net.au>
To: "ASA" <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2009 8:46 PM
Subject: Re: [asa] Radioactive decay of U-238 is imminent (just wait a few
billion years)

> Thanks for drawing attention to this linguistic distinction, Merv.
>
> No thanks, however, for pointing out my typo ("immanence" instead of
> "imminence"). :)
>
> I guess SOMETHING had to happen to bring me down to earth after Michael's
> glowing approval, and here 'tis!
>
> Yes, "immanent" and "imminent" are two different words - although one
> might say the potential for confusion is eminent <smile>
>
> Blessings,
> Murray
>
> mrb22667@kansas.net wrote:
>> I *thought* I had a handle on what immanence means --which was in part
>> related
>> to time. (e.g. the car crash was imminent.) Then, after consulting
>> some
>> dictionaries I discover the spelling difference between imminence and
>> immanence;
>> the latter of which, apparently has nothing to do with time, but probably
>> everything to do with what TEs often talk about. I think I was often
>> confusing
>> the two words (& not even realizing they weren't one word.)
>>
>> Thanks for helping me clarify my vocabulary. (maybe some others had
>> similar
>> confusion.)
>>
>> --Merv
>> Quoting Murray Hogg <muzhogg@netspace.net.au>:
>>
>>> John Burgeson (ASA member) wrote:
>>>> I take "imminent" to mean "at any time." No indication in the word as
>>>> to whether that time is 10 nanoseconds from now -- or 4 million years.
>>> Hi Burgy,
>>>
>>> It strikes me that a scientific example illustrating the notion of
>>> immanence
>>> would be radioactive decay.
>>>
>>> To take the most extreme instance, there is nothing inconsistent with
>>> the
>>> observation that for any atom of Uranium-238 the decay to Thorium-234 is
>>> "imminent" AND with the belief that with a half-life of about 4.5
>>> billion
>>> years it's probably not worth sitting around waiting for it to happen!
>>>
>>> Blessings,
>>> Murray
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
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>

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Received on Thu Jan 22 16:09:44 2009