Anna is bored and must be amused,

[smc]

I was with you, Anna, until the "counterintuitive" part ... all lined up with this tidbit. So, I'll go ahead anyway.

My students often use the phrase "quantum leap" to describe a major advance, a big step, a tremendous innovation, a paradigm shift -- in other words, something HUGE.

But in physics, a quantum represents the minimum of something, namely, the minimum amount of a physical entity that may be involved in any given entity. So, this idea of quantum as BIG or HUGE is rather ridiculous.

I have begun a crusade at my university to expunge the English language of this phrase "quantum leap" used this way. People find it amusing that I'm doing so. Perhaps, since you are -- as we say in Boston -- "wicked smaht," you will find it amusing, too.