[LINK] Exponential growth [was Microsoft is dead ... were it so!]

[Rick Welykochy]

Antony Barry wrote:

> On 10/04/2007, at 12:21 PM, Rick Welykochy wrote:
> 
>> Just because marketing droids overuse and kill off perfectly
>> good words does not mean we have to eschew their proper use.
> 
> Although it can destroy their use in general conversation. Take 
> "exponential" which now seem to mean "very rapid" rather describing 
> growth rate proportional to size.
> 
> Describing a growth rate as exponential should ring alarm bells whenever 
> it occurs in a finite system - even a planet.

Most people do not understand the underlying power of exponential
growth. Dr David Suzuki made it quite clear on the Nature of Things
(now WHERE is that show now that we need more than ever????)

Consider a test tube of nutrient. Introduce one bacterium. Assume
the population doubles every 30 minutes. At what time will the test tube
be 1/2 full?

At the risk of veering OT again,if the human pop. of the earth is
doubling now, say, every twenty years, how much warning will mankind
have before we have exhausted the resource supply necessary to
sustain the human population.

The answer to both of these questions will surprise a lot of (non-
scientific) people.


cheers
rickw



-- 
_________________________________
Rick Welykochy || Praxis Services

Border relations between Canada and Mexico have never been better.
      -- George W Bush