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Message no. 1
From: Adam Getchell acgetchell@*******.edu
Subject: [OT] Thermodynamics joke and Quantum Mechanics (Re: about a
Date: Mon, 7 Jun 1999 16:45:30 -0700
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>> > Einstein - "God does not play dice with the universe."
>
>The Best replt to this on ethat i have heard is i think from Fermi a
>friend of einstein
>"Albert stop telling God what to do"

This is much like the Three Laws of Thermodynamics expressed in Gambler's
terms:

First law: You cannot win
Second law: You cannot break even
Third law: You cannot stop playing the game

As a side note, Einstein was very unhappy with the Copenhagen
interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, which states that QM basically cannot
make predictions but only give statistics. Einstein came up with several
clever paradoxes to refute it, but Bohr and others were consistently able
to explain QM in light of the Copenhagen interpretation. As Schroedinger
put it, the wavefunction is a catalog of expectation values.

As such, many people, Bohm among them, were unhappy with this turn of
events and postulated "hidden variable" theories, which states briefly that
there are other variables besides energy, spin, position, momentum, parity,
but they are shrouded from our view. However, the proof of Bell's
inequality showed that local hidden variable theories are pretty much
impossible. You could still conceivably have a global hidden variable
theory, but such a theory is pointless (since nonlocal variables are
generally subsumed in the potential of the Hamiltonian operator).

However, if superluminal (ie v > c ) events are allowed, one can have
hidden variables. Of course, that plays havoc with causality, and makes the
math for relativistic QM rather difficult.

Anyway.
--Adam

acgetchell@*******.edu
"Invincibility is in oneself, vulnerability in the opponent." --Sun Tzu
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<excerpt><color><param>7F00,0000,0000</param>> > Einstein -
"God does
not play dice with the universe."


</color>The Best replt to this on ethat i have heard is i think from
Fermi a friend of einstein

<underline>"Albert stop telling God what to do"</underline>

</excerpt>

This is much like the Three Laws of Thermodynamics expressed in
Gambler's terms:


First law: You cannot win

Second law: You cannot break even

Third law: You cannot stop playing the game


As a side note, Einstein was very unhappy with the Copenhagen
interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, which states that QM basically
cannot make predictions but only give statistics. Einstein came up with
several clever paradoxes to refute it, but Bohr and others were
consistently able to explain QM in light of the Copenhagen
interpretation. As Schroedinger put it, the wavefunction is a catalog
of expectation values.


As such, many people, Bohm among them, were unhappy with this turn of
events and postulated "hidden variable" theories, which states briefly
that there are other variables besides energy, spin, position,
momentum, parity, but they are shrouded from our view. However, the
proof of Bell's inequality showed that local hidden variable theories
are pretty much impossible. You could still conceivably have a global
hidden variable theory, but such a theory is pointless (since nonlocal
variables are generally subsumed in the potential of the Hamiltonian
operator).


However, if superluminal (ie v > c ) events are allowed, one can have
hidden variables. Of course, that plays havoc with causality, and makes
the math for relativistic QM rather difficult.


Anyway.

--Adam


acgetchell@*******.edu

"Invincibility is in oneself, vulnerability in the opponent." --Sun Tzu

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From Schizi@***.com Mon, 7 Jun 19

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about [OT] Thermodynamics joke and Quantum Mechanics (Re: about a, you may also be interested in:

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