Date: Tue, 13 Feb 1996 04:29:19 -0500

From: "M. Lynne Murphy" 104LYN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MUSE.ARTS.WITS.AC.ZA

Subject: quantum leap



i suspect (again) that a television program is the popularizer of

this phrase (that being "quantum leap")--at least among young

americans. the show involved a physicist being flung from time/place

to time/place and from body to body. (though i don't know how it was

that this random physics-experiment accident happened only to drop

him within the continental u.s.)



anyhow, the show had something of a cult following (not unlike _star

trek_) and is now in nightly re-runs on one of the cable networks.

i strongly suspect that most people who use the phrase think _quantum_

just means "really big".



lynne



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