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Sisu West Ranch wrote:
> "...To paraphrase Steve Weinberg, Nobel Laureate in physics, causality
> requires faith and more rightly belongs in the regime of religion...."
>
>
> Except when I enjoy the use of modern solid state electronics, 
> classical mechanics works fine for my life.  I guess that is what mean 
> by knowing what causes something.  Truman is right in the strict sense.
If you take something as simple as the orbit of the earth around the 
sun, you can actually quantize the classical equations and determine a 
Schrodinger's equation to describe the physics (anything you can 
describe classically can be quantized into a description by 
Schrodinger's equation). It turns out the equation has an discrete 
(infinite) set of energy states and levels. That means that the orbit 
can only be in one state and it has to be in one of those states similar 
to an electron around the nucleus of the Hydrogen atom. The classical 
answer is the orbit distance can be any value in a continuum not just a 
discrete set of values.

It, however, turns out the adjacent energy states (and energy levels) 
are so close together that they approach the "Plank Length" the smallest 
possible distance between two states which means it is impossible ( 
becasuse of Heisenberg's  Uncertainty Principle) to tell that it wasn't 
a continuum. That is for all practical purposes the classical answer was 
sufficient. The fact that there is a Plank length (or minimal length be 
it only 10^-35 meters) implies the physical world is not a continuum but 
composed of quantum steps.

This exercise  had more to do with punishing poor students than any 
practical use. But there are a lot of effects which are at the backbone 
of our modern technology that require more than classical thinking and 
where the effect we see is the statistical average of the motion of many 
particles electrons - our PC's for example.

To make this endurance related - it was something we all had to endure.
> The closest I have come to a quantum event recently was when I found a 
> poor pony on a rural road near here about a week ago.  He had somehow 
> leaked out of his pasture and could not get back in.  I had to open 
> the gate (lower the potential energy barrier) to let him back in.  He 
> seemed grateful.
We all enjoy the benefits of "tunnel diodes" - but is the first time I 
have heard of a "tunneling horse" ;-) .

Truman

--

“Ethical axioms are found and tested not very differently from the 
axioms of science. Truth is what stands the test of experience.” Albert 
Einstein


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