Learn English – tens of thousands meaning

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In this article, I saw the phrase tens of thousands. Normally, I understand tens of thousands means some number between 10.000 to 90.000. But in this situation, I don't really understand it:

Oganessian reported his discovery to Flerov on his return. At first his mentor appeared dismissive – the usual fate for a successful guerrilla. It was only when the president of the USSR Academy of Sciences visited Jinr that Flerov pointed to Oganessian and said ‘He produces transuranes in their tens of thousands.’ The president, realising what this meant, gave Oganessian a kiss on his cheek.

What does tens of thousands mean in this situation?

Please explain to me.

Thanks

Best Answer

The answer is actually in the article itself, and the meaning is just the ordinary one. The fragment in the question of course begs the question whether tens of thousands refers to separate elements (in which case we would have a hyperbole, because there are not even a hundred transurane elements) or to the amount of transurane material that was produced.

The article says, in the paragraph before the one in the question (emphasis mine):

When Flerov went on an expedition to Siberia, Oganessian seized his chance. Testing his theory, he fired argon-40 at lead-208 to make fermium-244, predicting it would shed four neutrons and create an isotope with a half-life of only 4ms. The new technique produced fermium-246, losing only two neutrons, with a half-life of 1.1s. The resulting yield was 10,000 times greater than he imagined.

So Oganessian managed to produce 10,000 times more fermium than other techniques.

All said, the phrasing is certainly non-scientific and imprecise. Since it is a reported quote, we cannot put all the blame on the author. The reported reaction to the quote indicates that its meaning was well understood at the time, though, even if the wording is somewhat imprecise.

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