- #1
moe darklight
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1) Hey, so I just started reading the Feynman lectures. In the second chapter he has a small intro to quantum and he says:
ok, so far so good, I was aware of this part. But then he goes on to say:
this is just the intro of the book so he might go into more detail later, but it caught my attention— I always figured that there were "internal wheels" and we just haven't discovered them yet, and that this is why we can't predict (or that the wheels were simply unobservable)...
but his statement implies there are no wheels at all?? is this actually the case? it seems weird that reactions would happen without rhyme or reason yet still follow a semi-predictable pattern. How do we know that there aren't any internal wheels that we are yet to discover?
Maybe I misunderstood what he meant (most probably :-) ).
2) (EDIT) I realize now my second question reads kind of stupid because I didn't really explain that well what I meant... I meant, since the lectures are pretty much the outline of a physics class, if in the same physics class now a days there would be any subject that is not mentioned in the books due to recent advancements.
I've read next to nothing on it, but I that know string theory is pretty new, even though some physicists find it to be loopy (haha end with a pun! everyone loves a pun, right? ... r-right?)
Another most interesting change in the ideas and philosophy of science brought about by quantum mechanics is this: it is not possible to predict exactly what will happen in any circumstance.
For example, it is possible to arrange an atom which is ready to emit light, and we can measure when it has emitted light by picking up a photon particle, which we shall describe shortly. We cannot, however, predict when it is going to emit the light or, with several atoms, which one is going to.
ok, so far so good, I was aware of this part. But then he goes on to say:
You may say that this is because there are some internal ‘wheels’ which we have not looked at closely enough. No, there are no internal wheels;
this is just the intro of the book so he might go into more detail later, but it caught my attention— I always figured that there were "internal wheels" and we just haven't discovered them yet, and that this is why we can't predict (or that the wheels were simply unobservable)...
but his statement implies there are no wheels at all?? is this actually the case? it seems weird that reactions would happen without rhyme or reason yet still follow a semi-predictable pattern. How do we know that there aren't any internal wheels that we are yet to discover?
Maybe I misunderstood what he meant (most probably :-) ).
2) (EDIT) I realize now my second question reads kind of stupid because I didn't really explain that well what I meant... I meant, since the lectures are pretty much the outline of a physics class, if in the same physics class now a days there would be any subject that is not mentioned in the books due to recent advancements.
I've read next to nothing on it, but I that know string theory is pretty new, even though some physicists find it to be loopy (haha end with a pun! everyone loves a pun, right? ... r-right?)
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