• Starting today August 7th, 2024, in order to post in the Married Couples, Courting Couples, or Singles forums, you will not be allowed to post if you have your Marital status designated as private. Announcements will be made in the respective forums as well but please note that if yours is currently listed as Private, you will need to submit a ticket in the Support Area to have yours changed.

  • CF has always been a site that welcomes people from different backgrounds and beliefs to participate in discussion and even debate. That is the nature of its ministry. In view of recent events emotions are running very high. We need to remind people of some basic principles in debating on this site. We need to be civil when we express differences in opinion. No personal attacks. Avoid you, your statements. Don't characterize an entire political party with comparisons to Fascism or Communism or other extreme movements that committed atrocities. CF is not the place for broad brush or blanket statements about groups and political parties. Put the broad brushes and blankets away when you come to CF, better yet, put them in the incinerator. Debate had no place for them. We need to remember that people that commit acts of violence represent themselves or a small extreme faction.
  • We hope the site problems here are now solved, however, if you still have any issues, please start a ticket in Contact Us

Are quantum square triangles possible?

AV1611VET

SCIENCE CAN TAKE A HIKE
Site Supporter
Jun 18, 2006
3,856,435
52,724
Guam
✟5,182,747.00
Country
United States
Gender
Male
Faith
Baptist
Marital Status
Married
Politics
US-Republican
A triangle is an abstract geometrical concept, and so is a square. Nothing a physical object can do can alter what they are. Seeing as they are defined by the number of their sides/vertices/angles, a square triangle is a logical contradiction.
How many sides does a circle have?
 
Upvote 0

Wiccan_Child

Contributor
Mar 21, 2005
19,419
673
Bristol, UK
✟46,731.00
Faith
Atheist
Marital Status
In Relationship
Politics
UK-Liberal-Democrats
Upvote 0

Wiccan_Child

Contributor
Mar 21, 2005
19,419
673
Bristol, UK
✟46,731.00
Faith
Atheist
Marital Status
In Relationship
Politics
UK-Liberal-Democrats
Thank you "Wiccan Child", I will trust that the physicist gives the best answer.
I do try :p

Serious answer? Electrons can't be in two places at once. They can just be anywhere at once; whether they are, is a funny question. An electron can pop out of an atom, but it's not really in two places at once.

Square triangles are mathematically impossible, no amount of quantum queerness will change that.
 
Upvote 0

Upisoft

CEO of a waterfal
Feb 11, 2006
4,885
131
Orbiting the Sun
✟35,777.00
Faith
Atheist
Marital Status
Married
Serious answer? Electrons can't be in two places at once. They can just be anywhere at once; whether they are, is a funny question. An electron can pop out of an atom, but it's not really in two places at once.

Well, they have the possibility to be anywhere. Asking the question where is the electron while we don't watch it (and no one is watching it) is kinda meaningless within QM. Maybe the question has an answer, but not in QM.
 
Upvote 0

Targ

Regular Member
Sep 4, 2010
653
19
NSW, Australia
✟23,418.00
Faith
Marital Status
Married
I do try :p

Serious answer? Electrons can't be in two places at once. They can just be anywhere at once; whether they are, is a funny question. An electron can pop out of an atom, but it's not really in two places at once.

Square triangles are mathematically impossible, no amount of quantum queerness will change that.

Try telling that to dad who believes that it could easily have been possible for pi to equal 3 in some places (rather than 3.141 etc). :doh:

Is this a trick question?

I guess you could consider it a polygon with an infinite number of sides. :p

Well, I guess that could be right if we're talking about the concept of a circle rather than a physical circle that you can observe. Even a circle drawn with a very fine pencil will have a finite number of sides as a result of its perimeter being made up of a finite number of atoms.
 
Upvote 0

Wiccan_Child

Contributor
Mar 21, 2005
19,419
673
Bristol, UK
✟46,731.00
Faith
Atheist
Marital Status
In Relationship
Politics
UK-Liberal-Democrats
Try telling that to dad who believes that it could easily have been possible for pi to equal 3 in some places (rather than 3.141 etc). :doh:
Oh I gave up on him a long time ago ^_^ Different states and fishbowl PO science just made me angry, grr.

Well, I guess that could be right if we're talking about the concept of a circle rather than a physical circle that you can observe. Even a circle drawn with a very fine pencil will have a finite number of sides as a result of its perimeter being made up of a finite number of atoms.
What about spacetime? Can we imagine a perfect square traced out in spacetime, and then imagine space warping to turn it into a perfect square?
 
Upvote 0

Naraoia

Apprentice Biologist
Sep 30, 2007
6,682
313
On edge
Visit site
✟30,998.00
Faith
Atheist
Marital Status
Single
Well, I guess that could be right if we're talking about the concept of a circle rather than a physical circle that you can observe.
As I did ;)

Even a circle drawn with a very fine pencil will have a finite number of sides as a result of its perimeter being made up of a finite number of atoms.
Can you create a perfectly smooth circle with physical reality?

Hmm.

Light - not really, you can't have an infinite number of photons either. If you can't have an infinite number of them, it doesn't matter that they don't have much of a size :(

Hey! Can you do it with space, rather than matter (event horizon of a black hole, for example)? Or is space also made up of finite-sized components?
 
Upvote 0

Targ

Regular Member
Sep 4, 2010
653
19
NSW, Australia
✟23,418.00
Faith
Marital Status
Married
Oh I gave up on him a long time ago ^_^ Different states and fishbowl PO science just made me angry, grr.

What about spacetime? Can we imagine a perfect square traced out in spacetime, and then imagine space warping to turn it into a perfect square?

Please don't ask me these sorts of questions. My head is on the verge of doing this. Cheers.
 
Upvote 0

variant

Happy Cat
Jun 14, 2005
23,790
6,591
✟322,832.00
Faith
Agnostic
Marital Status
Single
What about spacetime? Can we imagine a perfect square traced out in spacetime, and then imagine space warping to turn it into a perfect square?

In light of that there should be square triangles for certain curvatures of space time.

For example, space time warping so that if I traveled in what was a triangle from my perspective, but was actually a square from where I had traveled.
 
Upvote 0