Ask a physicist anything.

[Cabal]

I still don't get it?

Are they incompatible or something?

ETA: Nevermind --- now I get it. "Is this a joke" ---

(Slow today.)

Yeah, it's a bit meta, sorry.

 

[Wiccan_Child]

(jokes)​

You only have a match when you enter a dark and cold room. You come across an oil lamp, an oil heater, and a candle. Which do you light first?​

The match .

It seems he's saying more than that though, that there's something wrong with QM itself. I know you can say that almost all scientific discoveries or insights have been counter-intuitive and unexpected, but they fit into common sense after we discover the facts, and QM doesn't. The facts themselves are what make it literally non-sensical. So what about the general point Penrose makes, that a scientific explanation should make sense to the human mind, or else it's not really an explanation?

I say he is overoptimistic about the abilities of the human mind. An explanation accounts for the facts. It doesn't have to make sense to the human mind, because the true explanation may very well be incomprehensible to said mind.

Just because it goes against our intuition and common sense, doesn't mean it's false. Just because it doesn't make sense, doesn't mean it's false. Penrose is a smart man, but I have to disagree with him here.

 

[AV1611VET]

Be alert! Your country needs lerts!

 

[Wiccan_Child]

A man walks one mile South, one mile East, and then one mile North. He arrived where he started. How?

 

[Chesterton]

Mrs. Schroedinger to Mr. Schroedinger: What the hell did you do to the cat? It looks half dead!

 

[TheReasoner]

A man walks one mile South, one mile East, and then one mile North. He arrived where he started. How?

He started off at the north pole.

 

[Cabal]

 

[Chesterton]

Just because it goes against our intuition and common sense, doesn't mean it's false. Just because it doesn't make sense, doesn't mean it's false.

One last thing: then could something be illogical and true at the same time?

 

[AV1611VET]

--- I don't get it.

(But it's funny.)

Is it because QM produces so many paradoxes?

 

[AV1611VET]

One last thing: then could something be illogical and true at the same time?

Yes --- Creation.

It violates science, it violates [human] logic, it violates uniformitarianism, it violates thermodynamics, it violates...

 

[Wiccan_Child]

He started off at the north pole.

Bingo .

One last thing: then could something be illogical and true at the same time?

No. If it's illogical (e.g., it asserts two mutually exclusive things at the same time), then it's false. That's how proof works.

 

[Wiccan_Child]

--- I don't get it.

(But it's funny.)

Is it because QM produces so many paradoxes?

It's because, quantum mechanically, a particle can be in two places at once. The Double Slit experiment shows that an electron can go through both slits at the same time. Freaky stuff.

 

[Belk]

--- I don't get it.

(But it's funny.)

Is it because QM produces so many paradoxes?

I believe it refers to the double slit experiment where if a photon is released and has to pass through one slit on its way to a receptor it actually takes both slits.

 

[AV1611VET]

It's because, quantum mechanically, a particle can be in two places at once. The Double Slit experiment shows that an electron can go through both slits at the same time. Freaky stuff.

Um ... okay.

 

[AV1611VET]

I believe it refers to the double slit experiment where if a photon is released and has to pass through one slit on its way to a receptor it actually takes both slits.

Note to skiers: Don't try this on the slopes!

 

[Jazmyn]

The match

The match .

All correct!

A man walks one mile South, one mile East, and then one mile North. He arrived where he started. How?

He was on a running machine?


Last night I played a blank tape at full blast. The mime next door went nuts.
-- Steven Wright

 

[Chesterton]

No. If it's illogical (e.g., it asserts two mutually exclusive things at the same time), then it's false. That's how proof works.

It's because, quantum mechanically, a particle can be in two places at once. The Double Slit experiment shows that an electron can go through both slits at the same time. Freaky stuff.

Um...okay.

 

[AV1611VET]

Last night I played a blank tape at full blast. The mime next door went nuts.
-- Steven Wright

 

[Belk]

Note to skiers: Don't try this on the slopes!

I have done that before. Didn't work out so well.

 

[Wiccan_Child]

Wow this is a great thread to find people to add to my ignore list. Off to the evolution threads next to find some more no-brainers to add to the list. So happy I won't be seeing you fellas in heaven. Let me know how that atheism goes for you, say, a trillion years from now.

> "This message is hidden because _your name here_ is on (my) ignore list."

What was that? Eh? I couldn't hear you...

Aww, and you came all the way here just to tell us that. I'm flattered.

Mat11:25 At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.
Mat11:26 Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight.

Yes, quite.

After that brief interlude, any more physics questions?