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To: Nebullis
Although the paper to which the post refers is not yet available, it's probably just a rewording of the Zeno paper online. In which case, there's not much to it.

Here's a link to the paper: Time and Classical and Quantum Mechanics: Indeterminacy vs. Discontinuity in PDF. It's not simply a rehash of Zeno but says that in relative motion there isn't a precise position at a particular instant of time, etc. I guess I still don't get the significance of the paper.

A far more significant paper is Dodd's Compton Effect analysis which basically destroys the concept of a photon as an object (particle or otherwise). It shows how a free electron absorbs a fixed amount of energy and momentum from a classical circularly-polarized electromagnetic wave, independent of the wave's intensity (leading to E=hf and p = hf/c). The intensity of the wave determines the amount of time required to absorb this "photon" of energy/momentum.

There is one physicist that I know of who has the potential to bring this analysis to the forefront of physics: Princeton's Kirk McDonald. I enjoy reading his papers and he has been studying em-electron interactions intensively. He uses classical em to analyze his experiments - finding the limits of applicability, etc - then proceeds to muck it up by transitioning to QM. He won't make the jump to declare the photon dead as an independent object - it's like a giant elephant sitting in the middle of his papers that he won't acknowledge.

167 posted on 08/02/2003 7:34:35 AM PDT by mikegi
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To: mikegi
Thansk for providing that link. I skimmed the paper and was similarly not impressed. I appreciate you input!
168 posted on 08/02/2003 9:21:44 AM PDT by Nebullis
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