B Are zero-point energy and inertia incompatible?

jaketodd
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With zero-point energy, endlessly jittering everything around randomly, nothing is ever at rest, and never moving at a constant speed (inertia).

But we've been getting along without knowledge of it for quite a while! Haha.

So, since it's random, and produces such little variations, maybe it just doesn't matter.

But, the question here is, are ZPE and inertia incompatible?

ZPE is interesting enough for even Stephen Hawking to have his Hawking Radiation based upon it.

So what does this all mean, and does it lead us to anything new?

Thanks,

Jake
 
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jaketodd said:
With zero-point energy, endlessly jittering everything around randomly, nothing is ever at rest, and never moving at a constant speed (inertia).
Starting from a false premise is not going to lead you to any valid conclusions. (Nor is using Wikipedia as a source for topics like this.)

I suggest reading these Insights articles:

https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/physics-virtual-particles/

https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/misconceptions-virtual-particles/

https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/vacuum-fluctuation-myth/

https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/vacuum-fluctuations-experimental-practice/
 
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jaketodd said:
ZPE is interesting enough for even Stephen Hawking to have his Hawking Radiation based upon it.
This is not correct. Hawking radiation is often described this way in pop science sources, but the actual math in Hawking's actual derivation is quite different.
 
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PeterDonis said:
Starting from a false premise is not going to lead you to any valid conclusions. (Nor is using Wikipedia as a source for topics like this.)

I suggest reading these Insights articles:

https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/physics-virtual-particles/

https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/misconceptions-virtual-particles/

https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/vacuum-fluctuation-myth/

https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/vacuum-fluctuations-experimental-practice/
Maybe you'd like to make the appropriate revisions to Wikipedia then?
 
jaketodd said:
Maybe you'd like to make the appropriate revisions to Wikipedia then?
I have no interest in revising Wikipedia; nor, I suspect, do the authors of those Insights articles. I am simply pointing out to you that, whether you like it or not, Wikipedia is not a valid source if you're trying to learn about physics.

In any case, this kind of suggestion is off topic here. Read the articles and improve your understanding; then you will be in a much better position to ask cogent questions.

In the meantime, this thread is closed since there are no cogent questions in it to answer.
 
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Insights auto threads is broken atm, so I'm manually creating these for new Insight articles. Towards the end of the first lecture for the Qiskit Global Summer School 2025, Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Olivia Lanes (Global Lead, Content and Education IBM) stated... Source: https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/quantum-entanglement-is-a-kinematic-fact-not-a-dynamical-effect/ by @RUTA
If we release an electron around a positively charged sphere, the initial state of electron is a linear combination of Hydrogen-like states. According to quantum mechanics, evolution of time would not change this initial state because the potential is time independent. However, classically we expect the electron to collide with the sphere. So, it seems that the quantum and classics predict different behaviours!

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