Paul Colby's latest activity
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Paul Colby replied to the thread Undergrad On the Quantum Nature of EM Waves.In classical diffraction theory (solving the classical em problem for a screen with slits) there are non-zero field present on the back... -
Paul Colby replied to the thread Undergrad Looking for a paper about spinors.This is not what you asked for but looks like a good resource. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1312.3824
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Paul Colby replied to the thread Graduate Gauge conditions in interaction theory.One is always free to change gauges. One is not free to violate charge conservation. Beyond that, I have no idea what you’re trying to...
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Paul Colby replied to the thread Graduate Gauge conditions in interaction theory.The EOM you quote conserve charge, ##\partial_\mu J^\mu =0##. You then violate charge conservation with your assumption, ##K^\mu =...
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Paul Colby reacted to andrewlee123's post in the thread Undergrad Difficulties in Measuring the Contact Angle of a Sessile Droplet with
Like.
I am studying the contact angle of a sessile droplet (water and alcohol mixtures) on both horizontal and inclined surfaces. I capture... -
Paul Colby replied to the thread High School Seemingly odd quantum tunneling.All of physics doesn’t reduce to tunneling. In fact, very little of it does.
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Paul Colby replied to the thread High School Seemingly odd quantum tunneling.Allowed and can happen aren’t the same, right? Just because 5 million in gold bullion could disappear from a vault and reappear in your...
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Paul Colby replied to the thread High School Seemingly odd quantum tunneling.So, could we all suddenly quantum tunnel into a black hole or into the center of Jupiter? Yes, but it’s very unlikely. Some things are...
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Paul Colby replied to the thread High School Seemingly odd quantum tunneling.There are attractive forces acting between bound particles, right? It takes work (a form of energy) to pull them apart. The act of...
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Paul Colby replied to the thread High School Seemingly odd quantum tunneling.Tunneling doesn’t (can’t) violate energy conservation. A stable molecule (bound group of atoms) has a lower net energy than the same...
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Paul Colby replied to the thread Graduate Quantum interpretations and indistinguishable elementary particles.Indistinguishable particles in two different states, here and there for example, are still indistinguishable.
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Paul Colby replied to the thread Graduate Quantum interpretations and indistinguishable elementary particles.IMO the use of real numbers to describe lengths and such in classical physics is any less miraculous than using hermitian operators...
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Paul Colby reacted to Demiurge's post in the thread Is the quantum wave function a real object or a mathematical tool? with Like.
If 'real' means to be perceived, then - No. The wavefunction is not real
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Paul Colby replied to the thread Is the quantum wave function a real object or a mathematical tool?.The OP clearly confuses these. Elements of reality is a new topic IMO.
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Paul Colby replied to the thread Is the quantum wave function a real object or a mathematical tool?.An element of reality isn’t an object either, right? Physics is a human activity. Humans use tools to do physics. These tools include...