Just to clarify my last post, I don’t think anyone here is talking about this just to intimidate people. I just mean that I think theories like this become prominent partly because they are counterintuitive.
Boris:
I’ve ehard that story as well. I don’t know if there is any truth to it or not.
As far as complexity of explanations by neophytes goes, these are complex topics, and trying to describe them in everyday erms while still remaining accurate is a difficult task at best even for the most accomplished experts, not to mention mere graduate students.
Take for example, my above explanation, which while simplistic and staightforward, may actually be flawed despite my best efforts to the contrary.
Carpe Marmot Marmosa!
Via Con Huevos
I don’t think Schroedinger meant the thought experiment as a parody. I believe he wanted to show that the strange counterintuitive principles of quantum mechanics applied not just to infinitesimal particles, but to macroscopic objects like cats. Basically he wanted to demolish the notion that “Sure QM is wierd, but who knows what really goes on down there anyway.” Sorry QM wierdness applies to all reality.
not that I know what I’m talking about.
I now return this thread to more competent posters.
To fly! The dream of man and flightless bird alike! -Some general on the Simpsons
Also, where was PETA, when Erwin was gassing those poor helpless kitties?
To fly! The dream of man and flightless bird alike! -Some general on the Simpsons
Brian Green(e) has a good clear description of a number of otherwise impenetrable matters in his book regarding the quest to unify quantum physics and general relativity (it’s called The Elegant Universe). Some of the concepts (quantum foam, and the like) continue to give me a vague seasickness, though…
Ooh, I love your magazine. My favorite section is `How to increase your word power’. That thing is really, really… really… good. – Homer, ``Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington’’
I’m about 3/4 of the way through that book right now. The only real problem I’m having is visualizing the 10-dimensional Calabi-Yau spaces…but I suppose that the point, eh?
Otherwise, it’s a pretty good book and I’d recommend it to anyone with an average math background and passing interest in physics.
Sheesh, I’m damned with faint praise.
Ooh, I love your magazine. My favorite section is `How to increase your word power’. That thing is really, really… really… good. – Homer, ``Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington’’
SpiritusMundi, there’s an article on pilot waves in The Skeptical Inquirer this month.
jrf
Okay, I’m now going to expose my soft belly and prepare to be gutted. What if, and I stress that this is a big “what if”, the photon doesn’t exist until it gets to it’s destination, and which basket is it’s destination isn’t determined until it gets there? What if instead of the cat existing in two states at once, the cat ceases to exist the moment the box is closed, only reappearing once the box is opened? What if there isn’t an answer until the question is posed? Please stop me people, I’m this close to asking: If a tree falls in the forest, and nobody hears it…
“I am homelier! Homelier than thou!”-Vince, from: Commonly Known Vincisms And Vincenomers
Because Kitties cannot be created or destroyed? Although at least one theory holds that new matter erupts into being constantly, and is instantly annihilated by meeting with antimatter particles erupting simultaneously, so that the overall balance is the same, and we who are looking at the universe on a larger scale don’t notice it…
Ooh, I love your magazine. My favorite section is `How to increase your word power’. That thing is really, really… really… good. – Homer, ``Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington’’
No, that can’t be it; kitties are constanstly generrating spontaneously around here.
jrf
JonF:
Since I’ve never known you to dodge a point, I’m assuming you missed my post where I “Threw down the gauntlet” as regards the flaws/oversimplifications in my explanation.
so.
BUMP
Obviously, the SMART photons are the ones leaving France 
The only thing that bugs me about this “many worlds” interpretation, which pretty much has to be parallel unless you ascribe to the time traveling particle theories, is that it has each universe able to affect the others. I can intuitively (as if intuition were useful in quantum matters) grasp the idea of a universe splitting off every time an event occurs, but I see no reason, once split, that they should be able to exile their particles here, or take any of our particles home with them.
Scylla, I’m actively ducking … I don’t think I can write a description one tenth as good as Feynman’s in “QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter”. I heartily recommend it. Every time I read it, I almost understand.
I just can’t bring myself to re-do something poorly when it’s already been done perfectly.
I’m not sure if I get the “infinite parallel worlds” idea being discussed. Does this mean that something with low probability occurs somewhere, or does it simply mean the universes/worlds only interact when events occur. If it’s low probability, wouldn’t that imply that there’s a universe where everything that can go wrong, will, and we’re just in one that follows the mean because we wouldn’t be here otherwise? Or am I missing something in between?
Is there an alternate universe where this message gets changed in transit to the entire works of Jorge Luis Borges, in Sanskrit?
panama jack
“Not at all,” he whispered with a smile. “Time forks, perpetually, into countless futures. In one of them, I am your enemy.”
Your Sig says it Panamajack. If there are several possibilities dependant upon random quantum events, than all possibilities must actualize according to the MWI.
JonF:
A most Artful Dodge. Which of Feynman’s books is that lecture in?
The one with the title I already gave you {grin} … here’s a version with a link: QED : The Strange Theory of Light and Matter. ISBN 0691024170.
Hum, I notice that you can see Feynman himself giving the original lectures for a mere $45 … I gotta have that!
Personally, I’m a little intrigued by the version where everything that can go wrong will, except for once when things actually go right.
Can you imagine the surprise and excitement?
-VM
JonF:
Just ordered the book.
Blockbuster didn’t have the tapes so I got Sorority Prison Girls instead.