radioactive and dispositions

[obi-bot]

From offline discussion:

(AR)Upon reflection, I think radioactive is a disposition. Concur?

(MC)Based on the BFO definition I would say yes. I'm getting confused between disposition and quality... Is frozen a disposition too then?

(AR)I don't think so.

(MC)"the disposition of a liquid to transform into a solid when it's freezing temperature is reached"

(AR)That's a disposition. Most liquids have it at some pressure but not at all pressures. But maybe frozen is a synonym for solid.

(MC)what about same kind of terms, like liquid, solid etc? (e.g. a gas is in gaseous state at normal pressure, but has the disposition of becoming liquid when the pressure is high enough?)

(AR)Having a mass, and having the disposition to fall under gravity are two different things (having a mass is associated with number of different dispositions)

A material that is mostly silicon but which has a certain concentration of some other molecule (quality) is different from its conductivity (a disposition), though the former predicts the latter.

(trying) While a disposition (or realizable entity) only exists in reference to the possibility of the process in which it is realized happening, qualities are not dependent on a process, in this way, for their existence.

(CM)temperature too?

(AR)Con: Ingvar says it is a quality ;-) Pro: Defined as related to kinetic energy which is dependent on speed. If we think speed is a disposition (to move a certain distance in a certain time) then kinetic energy would follow, and temperature would follow. Con: Black body radiation. If color(radiative spectrum) is a quality, and temperature is coextensive with black body radiation then it too is a quality.

How do you weigh it?

(AR)

Upon reflection, I think radioactive is a disposition. Concur?

Disposition in the sense that radioactive means that there is some large set of atoms/nuclear particles that have the potential to undergo a process that results in electromagnetic or particle radiation. But at any moment that may or may not happen.

OTOH, there is this issue of things that are unstable in an instance, but very stable when averaged over an appropriate time window. Barry points to blood pressure as an example. I don't know what to think about the status of such entities that are defined as averages over a period of time.

Reported by: mcourtot

Original Ticket: "obi/obi-terms/88":https://sourceforge.net/p/obi/obi-terms/88

[obi-bot]

• status: open --> closed

Original comment by: zhengj2007

[obi-bot]

Discussed on obi-dev call 2015-03-16

The PATO:radioactive is imported in OBI as subClassOf disposition. So it is solved.

Original comment by: zhengj2007