Derek Willis Posted February 18, 2018 #376 Share Posted February 18, 2018 3 hours ago, Will Due said: So was it ipso facto? It was a random event, perfectly acceptable within the laws of quantum mechanics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Due Posted February 18, 2018 Author #377 Share Posted February 18, 2018 1 minute ago, Derek Willis said: It was a random event, perfectly acceptable within the laws of quantum mechanics. If the laws of quantum mechanics are perfect, how can there ever be a random event? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harte Posted February 19, 2018 #378 Share Posted February 19, 2018 If you know the quanta, you know those laws actually describe their randomness. Harte Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Due Posted February 19, 2018 Author #379 Share Posted February 19, 2018 (edited) 53 minutes ago, Harte said: If you know the quanta, you know those laws actually describe their randomness. Harte But Einstein said that God doesn't play dice with the universe, so what's all the uncertainty about? And how can you have a law that allows for random behavior? Are sub-atomic particles living according to the laws of a different universe within this one? Edited February 19, 2018 by Will Due Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Due Posted February 19, 2018 Author #380 Share Posted February 19, 2018 Quantum mechanics, it appears that the consensus is that at the sub-atomic level, a different set of rules are in charge. Do I have at least that much understood correctly? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Willis Posted February 19, 2018 #381 Share Posted February 19, 2018 5 hours ago, Will Due said: But Einstein said that God doesn't play dice with the universe, so what's all the uncertainty about? And how can you have a law that allows for random behavior? Are sub-atomic particles living according to the laws of a different universe within this one? And Niels Bohr said to Einstein: "Stop telling God what to do!" Einstein believed all of physics to be deterministic. As has been demonstrated again and again, he was wrong. The universe on any scale follows the rules of Quantum Mechanics, however on the large scale the effects of those rules diminish. So for instance, it is perfectly possible that the Earth will randomly shift its orbit to, say, that of Pluto. But the odds of that happening are infinitesimally small. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harte Posted February 19, 2018 #382 Share Posted February 19, 2018 8 hours ago, Will Due said: But Einstein said that God doesn't play dice with the universe, so what's all the uncertainty about? And how can you have a law that allows for random behavior? Are sub-atomic particles living according to the laws of a different universe within this one? Same laws, but when you have an enormous number of particles (such as are present in the objects around us,) the randomness is far less evident because of the particle population size. Harte 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emma_Acid Posted April 17, 2018 #383 Share Posted April 17, 2018 On 18/02/2018 at 11:18 PM, Will Due said: If the laws of quantum mechanics are perfect, how can there ever be a random event? Not sure what you mean by the word "perfect" - what are perfect and imperfect physical laws?! Either way, radioactive decay is one of the best examples of a truly random event. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank_Hoenedge Posted May 1, 2018 #384 Share Posted May 1, 2018 On 2/18/2018 at 2:42 AM, Will Due said: Then why is gravity always focused on the center of a sphere, and not on every point on its surface? It's important to understand that Gravity is like compound interest. On the one hand everything is pulled to the center by everything beyond the center. On the other hand the exterior has nothing behind it so the gravitation towards the exterior is less than towards the center. I look at is as a 2d plane intersecting the center of volume from any point on the surface. It's also like every atom has a rope that it slings to every other atom... which means that the atoms moving around in the center (limited to a single structure by Hook's Law and the eventual absence of dislocations) are pulled by every rope outside of it, providing equilibrium. Surprisingly, the Sun has expanded, a lot, since it first ignited. Mercury is still in a stable orbit. The gravity at the North pole is around 9.8 newtons, while the gravity at the equator is less. In terms of a center of gravity for the universe there would be no matter present, the barycenter would be there. In terms of Mercury, it's orbit must have shifted for it to remain in a gravitational lagrange point (it's anchor of distance) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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