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To: FredZarguna
This is also a criticism of the first part of your own post: quantum mechanics is applicable to an enormous number of macroscopic phenomena. Metals, for example. Transistors. Superconductivity. Superfluidity. Phonons.

Superconductivity and superfluidity are phenomena occuring well below ambient, and surely aren't relevant to auto crashes. Most properties of metals don't have to be treated quantum mechanically. Ditto phonons; the heat capacity of a lattice, at ambient temperatures, is quite adequately described by classical mechanics.

354 posted on 04/07/2005 4:40:54 PM PDT by Right Wing Professor
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To: Right Wing Professor
Completely wrong.

Thermal and electrical conductivity and luster--all uniquely distinguishing characteristics of metals--are not explainable without quantum considerations; considerations which, quite frankly, have nothing to do with small scale.

As for what constitutes ambient, your view is too parochial to be useful. Most of the universe has an "ambient" temperature of a few Kelvins, and superfluidity occurs "near" (under some definition, as admittedly useless as yours) that region.

The simple fact is that there are critical properties of the world which are quantum properties that have nothing to do with "size" or what someone narrowly defines as ambient. There are real, practical, broad, and deep consequences to quantum entanglement. There would be no universe without it. And without a universe, there would be no car crashes.

Similarly, the fact the the state vectors of systems containing indistinguishable particles must be either symmetric or antisymmetic on exchange have wide ranging and macroscopic consequences. The statistical mechanics of bosons and fermions are fundamentally different from the statistical mechanics of classical materials. If electrons were not fermions, there would be no metals, hence no cars, and certainly no car crashes.

446 posted on 04/08/2005 11:55:01 AM PDT by FredZarguna (Vilings Stuned my Beeber: Or, How I Learned to Live with Embarrassing NoSpellCheck Titles.)
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