Recent content by Feeble Wonk

Conceded. In this case, I was referencing the terminology in the OP’s question, but I simply meant that it would be a violation of established scientific principles.

I’m not sure if you feel like your question was ever answered to your satisfaction. Unfortunately, I think the way that you framed the question is going to remain problematic for you. It’s simply a question of causation. In a physical system... particularly from a macroscopic perspective...

While this is a fascinating discussion, it seems that there’s a definite need to define our terms. Some types of “memory” referred to here would appear to be more generally described as physiological function or neurological reflex behavior. Similar descriptions could be made regarding...

Thank you Grinkle. I will. Hopefully it will clear things up for me.

Apologies. It was a loosely phrased comment. Actual “contracture” of dimensionless point particles is not at all what I was suggesting. What I was wondering was whether both sides of that question were essentially describing the same phenomenon. I’m afraid that this discussion will quickly...

I think this issue is a common source of confusion to us non-physicists because of the general nature of the concept... “how large was the universe”. How “large” compared to what? We’re talking about the universe itself here. So “size” has no obvious meaning in terms to an “exterior”...

All points conceded. You are both quite correct, of course. It’s all about energy requirements and probabilities, and the “elemental” aspect to particle manifestation really is limited to the locality of defining physical characteristics at an individual “point” in space/time. As has always been...

But, as we’ve seen with the Higgs boson, some particles are very unstable. They require extremely high energy collisions to be produced, and then decay “almost immediately”. That doesn’t seem completely random.

Apologies... I didn’t make my question clear. I was conceding that the “intuitive” concept was flawed. What I was hoping for was a layperson friendly explanation of the limiting energetic factors that define the “elemental” designation of a particle. I suppose I should add that it would be more...

I think that this is the crux of the argument, and the core source of the confusion. The definition of being an “elemental particle” appears to become somewhat ambiguous. As has been pointed out several times, there really is no “stuff” to a particle. It’s a “point” in space/time with zero...

Interesting. But this example considers an annihilation event where in two fermions release energy in the form of bosons. The Higgs decay results in the formation of two fermions. It seems different. I recognize that’s more or less a reversal of the transformation you described, but it does seem...

Good question Dan. https://home.cern/about/updates/2013/11/atlas-sees-higgs-boson-decay-fermions This article explains the decay, but I’d appreciate an explanation from one of the physicists as how the Higgs boson can still be categorized as a elemental particle despite this process.

Each congressional district consists of approximately 711,000 people, and is allotted one representative in the congressional House of Representatives. That's really the only statutory requirement for most states. In most cases, a state's district lines--for both state legislative and...

Yes, the formula is in place that assigns a congressional representative for a threshold electorate population base, but that has no bearing on where the borders are actually placed... only the number of representatives that a given state is allotted. Yes, the demographic information is known...

I guess this is where we disagree. My belief is that congressional districts produced by the program I've suggested would be much more fair than the "set of rules" currently utilized as the "standard". Perhaps the concept of gerrymandering is not as universally understood as I thought...