Recent content by clarkvangilder

Also, what the heck are the prefixes for? I had not seen that before. Hope choosing B was OK.

Does this paper [https://arxiv.org/pdf/1505.06963.pdf] give sufficient reason to accept/believe that the infinities where we "find" singularities can never really happen because there is a minimum length scale that prevents it? Hoping that I have made at least a reasonable deduction from the...

If infinite in size, then infinite in time too; therefore, we have already had the heat death of the universe. I don't think BB's can emerge after the heat death.

It seems as though the wave function amplitude would be larger where a particle is (classically) slower, and therefore at a lower kinetic energy. The slower the motion, the farther apart the nodes, and thus a larger wavelength?

Yes! This seems to me to be closer to the truth about the chances of obtaining a cat from the quantum _____________. There seems to be NO doubt that ALL of the particles needed can come from the quantum ___________; however, a complex macroscopic structure like a cat comes about through a...

I stumbled onto this article [http://physics.aps.org/articles/pdf/10.1103/Physics.8.6] in an effort to revisit first-course level Quantum Physics by looking at the basic rules, and in particular, inequalities like Bell and Leggett-Garg. The Leggett-Garg test really grabbed my attention...

I started looking into that, and am curious what piece(s) of math in particular represents (or is) a quantum fluctuation. I have been reading and re-reading the quantum fluctuation myth thread; but do not recall anything specific about the actual math that a fluctuation is, or is referring to...

OK...then what are the right questions that I should be asking then? While I wait, how about these? 1. Is it true that the likelihood of virtual particles popping into and out of existence is 1 since it happens all of the time? Casimir Effect? Based on experiments, it seems silly to question...

I agree that math is just a language...one of many representational systems. It does not exist like objects do. We think of ways to describe objects, motion of objects, etc. Math is just one way to do that.

Thanks for that insight ... I was hoping/thinking that must be true.

I have looked at a few introductory textbooks on the matter, and YES ... they DO NOT give any warrant for what I am asking about. It's the writing that comes higher in the food chain that worries me, such as the popular writers who are sometimes experts in the field. This entire thread has...

Perhaps a quick comparison of these virtual particles to the point-particle model in classical mechanics? It seems that virtual particles are much much more than just a model? (Not that you or anyone else said otherwise). The title of this article below sort of captures the spirit of...

So...for the novice here...is it safe to say that the summary of all of this wrangling is that quantum fluctuations are a useful fiction? Useful in the sense that its metaphorical import is useful in describing some process or set of processes? Could the same be said of the probability waves...

True. Isn't the Boltzmann Brain thing more of a reduction ad absurdism against what I am inquiring about. At least that is my current understanding of that idea. I am looking for a set of reasons to deny that QM can provide warrant for the belief that anything, such as a rock or planet can...

I started this topic with a question about can QM provide us with warrant for a belief that a thing can spontaneously transition into another thing. I DO NOT think that it can; but others claim that this is so. They are convinced that QM can somehow do this. I have no idea why; but would like...