Tag Archives: Heisenberg Uncertainty

September 17, 2021

Wilczek: Fundamentals

I just finished Fundamentals: Ten Keys to Reality (2021), by Frank Wilczek. It’s yet another book explaining fundamental physics for lay readers, and it does so pretty much entirely within the bounds of mainstream science. I enjoyed reading it, but it’s mainly a review of physics as we know it.

I saw it on the library’s list of new books and put it on hold back on May 14th. It didn’t become available until September 3 — more than a three-month wait. Apparently lots of people wanted to read it.

Bottom line, I recommend it as an easy and enjoyable read, especially for those with a more casual interest in physics.

21 Comments | tags: Frank Wilczek, Heisenberg Uncertainty, Isaac Newton | posted in Books, Physics

October 18, 2020

Fourier Geometry

By Wyrd Smythe

Last time I opened with basic exponentiation and raised it to the idea of complex exponents (which may, or may not, have been surprising to you). I also began exploring the ubiquitous exp function, which enables the complex math needed to deal with such exponents.

The exp(x) function, which is the same as e^x, appears widely throughout physics. The complex version, exp(ix), is especially common in wave-based physics (such as optics, sound, and quantum mechanics). It’s instrumental in the Fourier transform.

Which in turn is as instrumental to mathematicians and physicists as a hammer is to carpenters and pianos.

8 Comments | tags: complex numbers, complex plane, exponential function, exponentiation, Fourier transform, Heisenberg Uncertainty | posted in Math, Physics

November 26, 2019

BB #64: Systems Bubble

By Wyrd Smythe

For the last two weeks I’ve written a number of posts contrasting physical systems with numeric systems.

(The latter are, of course, also physical, but see many previous posts for details on significant differences. Essentially, the latter involve largely arbitrary maps between real world magnitude values and internal numeric representations of those values.)

I’ve focused on the nature of causality in those two kinds of systems, but part of the program is about clearly distinguishing the two in response to views that conflate them.

20 Comments | tags: Alan Turing, Cantor's Diagonal, Georg Cantor, Halting Problem, Heisenberg Uncertainty, Incompleteness Theorems, Kurt Gödel, quantum mechanics, Turing Halting Problem, Werner Heisenberg | posted in Brain Bubble, Computers

October 24, 2014

Quantum Thoughts

By Wyrd Smythe

Too Weird For Words!

I started with the idea of physical determinism and what it implies about free will and the future. Then I touched on chaos theory, which is sometimes raised as a possible way around determinism (short answer: nope). In the first article I drew a distinction between “classical” mechanics and quantum mechanics because only at the quantum level is there any sign of randomness in reality.

It turns out that the quantum world is decidedly weird, and while we have math and models that seem to describe it extremely well, it can honestly be said that no one actually understands it. This time I’ll tell you about some of that weirdness and how it may (or may not) apply to the world as we know it.

The key question here is whether our brains make use of quantum effects.

15 Comments | tags: Erwin Schrödinger, Heisenberg Uncertainty, J.B.S. Haldane, Max Planck, quantum effects, quantum mechanics, quantum physics, Schrödinger's Cat, Werner Heisenberg | posted in Physics

July 31, 2011

Big Bang? Let there be Light?

By Wyrd Smythe

In an earlier post, I wrote that:

The problem for any honest theist is,

“What if it isn’t true?”

The problem for any honest atheist is,

“What if it is true?”

Ultimately both represent ways of looking at the universe. There is no factual conclusion, no proof, about either one; both are matters of faith and belief.

Science can argue all it wants that the Logic and Scientific Method is superior to believing in an ineffable reality, but given all we do know and all we don’t know, in the end it is still just a worldview.

13 Comments | tags: atheism, big bang, deism, Heisenberg Uncertainty, infinity, quantum physics, spacetime, spirituality, The Matrix, theism, Yin and Yang | posted in Basics, Philosophy, Religion, Science