Quantum Mechanics - why random??

[Bodhi Dharma Zen]

Re: Re: Re: Quantum Mechanics - why random??

Randomness that can somehow "exist" independent of the inherent indeterminism of observers trying to process information about the world around them. Describing something as random seems like such an observer specific thing to me...

Well, any description is observer specific if you ask me.

 

[SkepticalScience]

Hmm. . . ok.

But what about my question of the universe with only TWO subatomic particles?

If we only had two subatomic particles, would their motions now be predictable?

 

[Stimpson J. Cat]

If we only had two subatomic particles, would their motions now be predictable?

Quantum mechanics is not capable of describing such a universe.

You have to remember that particles are simply the quanta of the various fields, and due to the uncertainty principle, the energy states of those fields naturally fluctuate with time. So the number of particles is, itself, not a conserved quantity.


Dr. Stupid

 

[SkepticalScience]

Hey Stimpson ,

Can you explain that a bit further for me please?

Especially this sentence: "You have to remember that particles are simply the quanta of the various fields"

And I can't understand this concept at all: "the number of particles is, itself, not a conserved quantity"

Are you telling me, that if I am looking at 10 subatomic particles, that the next time I look at it, there could be 50 subatomic particles that magically appeared?

How can that be?

 

[Stimpson J. Cat]

Consider an electron and proton. Just two particles, right? Wrong.

The electromagnetic and weak nuclear fields associated with these particles, and indeed which are the source of their interaction with each other, are quantized. The interaction force between them is itself carried by virtual particles. Photons for the electromagnetic interaction, and massive bosons for the weak nuclear interaction. The very existence of these virtual particles is a result of the uncertainty principle. The fields they are associated with are in a process of continual fluctuation.

These particles are not appearing and disappearing by magic. They are, themselves, simply the quanta of the constantly fluctuating fields which exist everywhere. What we think of as "ordinary matter", things like protons, neutrons, and electrons, are themselves just quanta of some of the many fields which make up the Universe. These fields just happen to be relatively stable at the kind of energy densities we are used to dealing with. The other fields, particularly the electromagnetic field, are not.


Dr. Stupid