Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Hank Kerchief
Hank Kerchief said: "The behavior of dice and coins is not random, but quite distinctly physically determined. The presumed “randomness” has entirely to do with our ignorance of what is going to happen."

You mean if we knew exactly what every atom in a die was going to do, we could predict the behavior of the die?

You seem to be stating that classical physics applies to very large systems without stating that such an outcome is predicted by quantum physics due to the very large number of independent random events.

25 posted on 05/19/2008 11:14:05 AM PDT by William Tell (RKBA for California (rkba.members.sonic.net) - Volunteer by contacting Dave at rkba@sonic.net)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies ]


To: William Tell
William,

Sorry I did not see your post earlier.

You mean if we knew exactly what every atom in a die was going to do, we could predict the behavior of the die?

Not exactly. I mean, at the macro level, all physical events are determined. If they were not, the behavior of everything from computers to lasers would be unreliable. Except for manufacturing errors, they are entirely reliable. If you knew the exact amount of energy and momentum applied to a pair of dice, and coefficient to friction of the material the landed on and the angle at which they landed (the entire physical context, in other words) you would know exactly what they would do. Every time that identical context was repeated (if it could be) the behavior of the dice would be identical.

I do not think that behavior has anything to do with the indeterminate (not random) quantum behavior.

A thought for you. Quantum mechanics treats particles as discrete. The wave nature of these “particles” (which is analog) is ignored.

Not make an argument for my view, just telling you what it is.

Hank

60 posted on 05/20/2008 7:21:15 AM PDT by Hank Kerchief
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson