The cool science thread

[Paul McEnery]

Because your brain didn't get freezed up enough today:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...its-arrow.html

[thespianphryne]

Because your brain didn't get freezed up enough today:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...its-arrow.html

o_O




.

[Arvandor]

Because your brain didn't get freezed up enough today:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...its-arrow.html

Such a conjecture might hold if the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics is shown to be correct, Maccone says. This scenario proposes that the universe is actually made up of a multitude of parallel universes, one for every physical possibility.

I hate that theory. It is wrong. I can prove it's wrong with a simple thought experiment.


Flip a coin. What are the odds that it will land either heads or tails? 50/50?

No. There is a 100% chance that it will land either heads or tails. It is just that there is no way to know which, until you flip that coin and observe the result.

So it is for everything, every so-called random possibility. There is always a 100% chance of something happening. It is just that we don't know what that will be until it happens.

So, even if there are other quantum realities, they will be identical to ours. Nothing will be different. They will be the same right down to the last molecule.

[thespianphryne]

I hate that theory. It is wrong. I can prove it's wrong with a simple thought experiment.


Flip a coin. What are the odds that it will land either heads or tails? 50/50?

No. There is a 100% chance that it will land either heads or tails. It is just that there is no way to know which, until you flip that coin and observe the result.

So it is for everything, every so-called random possibility. There is always a 100% chance of something happening. It is just that we don't know what that will be until it happens.

So, even if there are other quantum realities, they will be identical to ours. Nothing will be different. They will be the same right down to the last molecule.

Dude, where were you in high school math and physics class. You have failed to understand probability and chance.

[Dreadstar]

Dude, where were you in high school math and physics class. You have failed to understand probability and chance.

What he's saying is that there is no variance in the condition of an event. Play that event back a million times and it will happen exactly the same way each and every time, because every quantum particle is in the exact same spot at that exact same moment. Or side-step into any of the "other worlds" and watch the same event happen and there will be no variance, since there is no variance in the basic particles.

What he fails to acknowledge is that the theory specifically states that the variance occurs as its premise, based on wave theory and the like. He's dismissing the theory because he dismisses the premise.

I don't have the luxury of dismissing such theory because I'm fully aware that there's so much that I don't know.

[Arvandor]

Dude, where were you in high school math and physics class. You have failed to understand probability and chance.

I understand it fine. Flipping a coin, rolling a dice, or deciding between chips and beans for dinner, are more than a matter of luck.

The outcome is determined by all preceding factors - time of day, weather patterns, temperature, the electrical impulses in your brain at that exact moment in time.

Cause and Effect. Chaos Theory (a misnomer if ever there was one, there's nothing chaotic about it).

All preceding factors, everything that is set up in the universe at that exact moment in time determines the only possible outcome of an event. Only one possibility. There can be no other.

[Paul McEnery]

There is always a 100% chance of something happening.

I see you've never been to Slough.

[Paul McEnery]

I understand it fine. Flipping a coin, rolling a dice, or deciding between chips and beans for dinner, are more than a matter of luck.

The outcome is determined by all preceding factors - time of day, weather patterns, temperature, the electrical impulses in your brain at that exact moment in time.

Cause and Effect. Chaos Theory (a misnomer if ever there was one, there's nothing chaotic about it).

All preceding factors, everything that is set up in the universe at that exact moment in time determines the only possible outcome of an event. Only one possibility. There can be no other.

That would depend on deterministic causation being anything other than a special case of probability.

It is not.

[Tadhg]

Because your brain didn't get freezed up enough today:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...its-arrow.html

HA! That's about the paper I said reminded me of you!

[Paul McEnery]

HA! That's about the paper I said reminded me of you!

Really?

That's so improbable I've already forgotten it.

[Tadhg]

Really?

That's so improbable I've already forgotten it.

I think we've proven him correct.

[mikekerr3]

I hate that theory. It is wrong. I can prove it's wrong with a simple thought experiment.


Flip a coin. What are the odds that it will land either heads or tails? 50/50?

No. There is a 100% chance that it will land either heads or tails. It is just that there is no way to know which, until you flip that coin and observe the result.

So it is for everything, every so-called random possibility. There is always a 100% chance of something happening. It is just that we don't know what that will be until it happens.

So, even if there are other quantum realities, they will be identical to ours. Nothing will be different. They will be the same right down to the last molecule.

Oversimplification to absurdity and a blinding amount of misunderstand on the basic principles is shown here.

There are a huge number of alternatives to heads of tails, those are just the most likely answers, and every different flip changes the universe just a bit

[mikekerr3]

I understand it fine. Flipping a coin, rolling a dice, or deciding between chips and beans for dinner, are more than a matter of luck.

The outcome is determined by all preceding factors - time of day, weather patterns, temperature, the electrical impulses in your brain at that exact moment in time.

Cause and Effect. Chaos Theory (a misnomer if ever there was one, there's nothing chaotic about it).

All preceding factors, everything that is set up in the universe at that exact moment in time determines the only possible outcome of an event. Only one possibility. There can be no other.

Only if you ignore most of Heisenberg and everyone after him, at the quantum level predicting through cause ad effect becomes and exercise in probability with some outcome likely but a nearly infinite number of possibilities, and the electron that jumps shells may very well end up across the universe instead of the next shell.

There is a lot of chaos in chaos theory, the same starting conditions in truly complex systems don't produce identical results every time, they are likely to be similar but random and unpredictable factors do apply

[Chris N]

I hate that theory. It is wrong. I can prove it's wrong with a simple thought experiment.

Usually a good way to prove or disprove complicated counter-intuitive scientific theories.

[Iangould]

All preceding factors, everything that is set up in the universe at that exact moment in time determines the only possible outcome of an event. Only one possibility. There can be no other.

I'm sorry but every physicist since around 1890 disagrees with you.