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Phenomenon vs Quantum - What's the difference?

phenomenon | quantum |

As nouns the difference between phenomenon and quantum

is that phenomenon is an observable fact or occurrence or a kind of observable fact or occurrence while quantum is .

As a adjective quantum is

of a change, sudden or discrete, without intermediate stages.

phenomenon

Alternative forms

* phaenomenon, (archaic) * phainomenon * (qualifier)

Noun

(phenomena)
  • An observable fact or occurrence or a kind of observable fact or occurrence.
  • * 1900 , , The Making of Religion , ch. 1:
  • The Indians, making a hasty inference from a trivial phenomenon , arrived unawares at a probably correct conclusion.
  • * 2007 , " Ask the Experts: Hurricanes," USA Today , 7 Nov. (retrieved 16 Jan. 2009):
  • Hurricanes are a meteorological phenomenon .
  • Appearance; a perceptible aspect of something that is mutable.
  • * 1662 , Thomas Salusbury (translator), Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief Systems of the World , First Day:
  • I verily believe that in the Moon there are no rains, for if Clouds should gather in any part thereof, as they do about the Earth, they would thereupon hide from our sight some of those things, which we with the Telescope behold in the Moon, and in a word, would some way or other change its Phœnomenon .
  • A fact or event considered very unusual, curious, or astonishing by those who witness it.
  • * 1816 , , The Antiquary—Volume I , ch. 18:
  • The phenomenon of a huge blazing fire, upon the opposite bank of the glen, again presented itself to the eye of the watchman. . . . He resolved to examine more nearly the object of his wonder.
  • A wonderful or very remarkable person or thing.
  • * 1839 , , Nicholas Nickleby , ch. 23:
  • "This, sir," said Mr Vincent Crummles, bringing the maiden forward, "this is the infant phenomenon —Miss Ninetta Crummles."
  • * 1888 , , "The Phantom Rickshaw":
  • But, all the same, you're a phenomenon', and as queer a ' phenomenon as you are a blackguard.
  • An experienced object whose constitution reflects the order and conceptual structure imposed upon it by the human mind (especially by the powers of perception and understanding).
  • * 1900 , , "Comparison of Some Views of Spencer and Kant," Mind , vol. 9, no. 34, p. 234:
  • Every "phenomenon " must be, at any rate, partly subjective or dependent on the subject.
  • * 1912 , , "Is There a Cognitive Relation?" The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods , vol. 9, no. 9, p. 232:
  • The Kantian phenomenon is the real as we are compelled to think it.

    Usage notes

    * The universal, common, modern spelling of this term is (term). Of the , phaenomenon, ,). * By far the most common and universally accepted plural form is the classical phenomena; the Anglicised phenomenons is also sometimes used. The plural form (term) is frequently misused in the singular. Arising from this misuse, the double plurals phenomenas and phenomenae, as well as a form employing the greengrocer’s apostrophe — — are seen in non-standard use; they are erroneous.

    Synonyms

    * (observable fact or occurrence) event * marvel, miracle, oddity, wonder * (wonderful person or thing) marvel, miracle, phenom, prodigy, wonder

    Antonyms

    * noumenon, thing-in-itself

    Derived terms

    * phenom

    quantum

    Noun

    (quanta)
  • * Burke
  • without authenticating the quantum of the charges
  • * 1749 , (Henry Fielding), Tom Jones , Folio Society 1973, p. 416:
  • The reader will perhaps be curious to know the quantum of this present, but we cannot satisfy his curiosity.
  • *1997 , (Kiran Nagarkar), Cuckold , HarperCollins 2013, p. 375:
  • *:Otherwise I will have given the lie to my maxim that whether you work eight or twenty hours, the quantum of work that gets done on a normal day is the same.
  • * 2008 , The Times of India , 21 May 2008, [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Business/India_Business/Fuel_price_hike_put_off_over_quantum/articleshow/3087364.cms]:
  • The Congress's core ministerial panel on Friday gave its green signal to raising motor fuel prices but the quantum of increase emerged as a hitch.
  • The amount or quantity observably present, or available.
  • *1979 , , Smiley's People , Folio Society 2010, p. 96:
  • *:Each man has only a quantum of compassion, he argued, and mine is used up for the day.
  • * 1999 , Joyce Crick, translating Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams , Oxford 2008, p. 34:
  • The dream of flying, according to Strümpell, is the appropriate image used by the psyche to interpret the quantum of stimulus proceeding from the rise and fall of the lungs when the cutaneous sensation of the thorax has simultaneously sunk into unconsciousness.
  • (physics) The smallest possible, and therefore indivisible, unit of a given quantity or quantifiable phenomenon.
  • * 2002 , David C Cassidy et al., Understanding Physics , Birkhauser 2002, p. 602:
  • The quantum of light energy was later called a photon .
  • (math) A definite portion of a manifoldness, limited by a mark or by a boundary.
  • (William Kingdon Clifford)

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Of a change, sudden or discrete, without intermediate stages.
  • (informal) Of a change, significant.
  • (physics) Involving quanta.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01
  • , author=Michael Riordan , title=Tackling Infinity , volume=100, issue=1, page=86 , magazine= citation , passage=Some of the most beautiful and thus appealing physical theories, including quantum' electrodynamics and ' quantum gravity, have been dogged for decades by infinities that erupt when theorists try to prod their calculations into new domains. Getting rid of these nagging infinities has probably occupied far more effort than was spent in originating the theories.}}
  • (computing theory) Relating to a quantum computer.
  • Derived terms

    * quantum algorithm * quantum bit * quantum bogodynamics * quantum brain dynamics * quantum calculus * quantum cascade laser * quantum channel * quantum chaos * quantum chemistry * quantum chromodynamics * quantum circuit * quantum computer * quantum computing * quantum cryptography * quantum darwinism * quantum decoherence * quantum degeneracy * quantum dense coding * quantum dot * quantum effect device * quantum efficiency * quantum electrochemistry * quantum electrodynamics * quantum electronics * quantum entanglement * quantum field theory * quantum fingerprinting * quantum flavordynamics * quantum fluctuation * quantum gate * quantum gauge theory * quantum geometry * quantum gravity * quantum group * quantum gyroscope * quantum Hall effect * quantum harmonic oscillator * quantum heterostructure * quantum history * quantum hydrodynamics * quantum immortality * quantum indeterminacy * quantum inequality * quantum information * quantum jump * quantum leap * quantum level * quantum libet * quantum limit * quantum link * quantum mechanics * quantum network * quantum neural network * quantum number * quantum ontology * quantum operation * quantum optics * quantum phase transition * quantum physics * quantum programming * quantum psychology * quantum randomness * quantum register * quantum scalar field * quantum solvent * quantum sort * quantum state * quantum statistical mechanics * quantum suicide * quantum superposition * quantum teleportation * quantum theory * quantum tomography * quantum valebant * quantum vibration * quantum virtual machine * quantum waveform generator * quantum well * quantum wire * quantum yield * quantum Zeno effect