Quantum physics is a total mess, not because it doesn't represent at least a part of reality because it has been experimentally verified to expected degrees of precision and no experiment has disproved any of it; not because the part is a basic part of and behind much of our established technology; but because nobody unquestionably understands what it all unquestionably means. What does part physics unquestionably tell us? The science of the part is rock solid - it's the philosophy basic it that's the mess. The comprehension, the meaning behind part physics is difficult, not just for the public but for professionals as well. From discontinuities and uncertainties and super-positions of all inherent states, to entanglement and all things left to occasion and probability, and where a cat can be both dead and alive at the same time and universes split and duplicate at the drop of a hat, where the elementary bits and pieces of the micro exhibit both wave and particle properties (though at least not at the same time), and last, but unquestionably not least, the unquestionably requisite role of the observer and the observer's measurement in all of this part mess.
The philosophy and meaning and reality behind part (micro) physics is diametrically in disagreement to that of classical (macro) physics, yet classical physics (the physics of Galileo and Newton that we were all taught in high school) must ultimately be derived from micro physics a.k.a. part physics.
Lego
Science is often more about what happens and how it happens rather than why it happens just that way. Many physicists just get on with their experiments, get results, but don't worry too much about any extreme meanings - why they got the results they did - so that practical daily interpretation of all things part tends to be called the 'shut up and calculate' interpretation. It works; just do it; don't worry about what it means.' Fortunately, some scientists are deeper thinkers than others and do ponder - in this case, our part mess.
As to the big picture, the Universe at large may seem smooth and continuous but it's anyone but on the micro-scale. In fact, I'd recommend the Universe is akin to being constructed of Lego blocks of dissimilar colours (each reflecting basic realities like time, mass, energy, length, etc.) In other words, the whole Universe, all the bits and pieces, are unquestionably indivisible bits and pieces. That is, part physics underlies all of cosmology and all of physics. Now Lisa Randall (Professor of Physics, Harvard University), defines 'Quantum' as "A assorted unbreakable unit of a measurable quantity; the smallest unit of that quantity". For example, you can have one electron, or two electrons, but not one and a half electrons. An electron can orbit an atom in this orbit, or in that orbit, but not one in-between. The electron can jump from one orbit to other and digest or give off energy, but in assorted indivisible units, such that you can have one basic bit of power (or the particle responsible for that power - a photon in the case of electromagnetism; a graviton in the case of gravity), or two bits, but again, not one and a half bits. There is such a thing as the shortest unit of distance inherent (hence area and volume), called the Planck distance as well as the shortest most basic unit of time called Planck-Wheeler time. So, all these assorted part Lego blocks ultimately make up life, the Universe and everything. On the macro-scale these blocks aren't noticeable. But when dealing with cosmological issues that involve small spaces, or large densities or tiny time frames or other corporal extremes, then one needs to abandon 'smooth and continuous' for quantum's Lego blocks.
But just when you think it safe to go back into the now part waters, along comes one tiny minute irregularity to the part rule just to make life either difficult, animated or both; that irregularity is gravity, which just refuses to have it's own minute Lego block. If life, the Universe and everything can't make up its mind to be either/or, then things are unquestionably messed up.
Fun With Physics: The quantum Mess: Life, The Universe And everything
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น