[NatureNS] Forthcoming Buddhism and Physics public talk at King's

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From: Patrick Kelly <patrick.kelly@dal.ca>
Date: Sun, 9 Mar 2008 17:05:51 -0300
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Hi all:

Quantum mechanics is statistical by its very nature. That is one of the  
reasons some of its concepts are hard to grasp, and why one often has  
to "unlearn" some things before one gain progress. For example, in my  
first-year astronomy course, when I am covering the basics of science,  
and how it works, I often show them this image and ask them what it is:

http://myweb.dal.ca/pmkelly/ABCD.jpg

Take a guess, then scroll down and see if you were right!



























Many students will say it as an atom, or a carbon atom, or an electron.  
In fact I have yet to have someone tell me that it is a model of an  
atom.

Here are some more models of atoms.

http://myweb.dal.ca/pmkelly/ABCDE.jpg

While note comes close to showing what a real atoms looks like, the  
ones at the upper right and lower left come the closest. The electron  
is not "orbiting" like the Earth orbits tho Sun. Instead it has a  
certain probability of being in different areas around the nucleus. And  
at this scale, you can never know for sure both exactly where it is and  
which way it is moving because the very act of observing it changes its  
properties. So at that level, everything is statistical.

Pat



On Mar 9, 2008, at 3:50 PM, Kent Mullin wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> Well said David, my sentiments exactly. It is commonly accepted that  
> one can prove anything with statistics, but I often wonder if the same  
> isn't true of quantum mechanics as well.
>
> K.
>
>
> On 6-Mar-08, at 8:25 PM, David & Alison Webster wrote:
>
>> Hi All,            Mar 6, 2008
>>    I am wondering if this talk was initially scheduled for Apr 1.
>>
>>    And, if I follow this correctly, tides are caused by too many  
>> people looking at the conditional moon that otherwise would be absent  
>> and therefore unable to exert a gravitational force. And the Bay of  
>> Fundy, with record tidal range, is I suppose the epicenter of  
>> Moonstruckosity.
>>
>>    And this explains the Buddist Hmm-mmmmmmm.
>>
>>    But, all things considered, it is a relief to know that all those  
>> things which I don't see (such as hyperbolic functions), don't exist  
>> after all.
>> Yt, DW, Kentville
>
>

======================================================================== 
==
Patrick Kelly
Director of Computer Facilities
======================================================================== 
==
Faculty of Architecture and Planning
Dalhousie University
======================================================================== 
==
PO Box 1000 Stn Central                5410 Spring Garden Road
Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 2X4           Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 2X4
Canada                                 Canada
======================================================================== 
==
Phone:(902) 494-3294    FAX:(902) 423-6672   E-mail:patrick.kelly@dal.ca
======================================================================== 
==


--Apple-Mail-20--847314922
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Type: text/enriched;
	charset=US-ASCII

Hi all:


Quantum mechanics is statistical by its very nature. That is one of
the reasons some of its concepts are hard to grasp, and why one often
has to "unlearn" some things before one gain progress. For example, in
my first-year astronomy course, when I am covering the basics of
science, and how it works, I often show them this image and ask them
what it is:


http://myweb.dal.ca/pmkelly/ABCD.jpg


Take a guess, then scroll down and see if you were right!




























Many students will say it as an atom, or a carbon atom, or an
electron. In fact I have yet to have someone tell me that it is a
<bold>model</bold> of an atom.


Here are some more models of atoms.


http://myweb.dal.ca/pmkelly/ABCDE.jpg


While note comes close to showing what a <bold>real</bold> atoms looks
like, the ones at the upper right and lower left come the closest. The
electron is not "orbiting" like the Earth orbits tho Sun. Instead it
has a certain probability of being in different areas around the
nucleus. And at this scale, you can never know for sure both exactly
where it is and which way it is moving because the very act of
observing it changes its properties. So at that level, everything is
statistical. 


Pat 




On Mar 9, 2008, at 3:50 PM, Kent Mullin wrote:


<excerpt>Hi All,


Well said David, my sentiments exactly. It is commonly accepted that
one can prove anything with statistics, but I often wonder if the same
isn't true of quantum mechanics as well.


K.



On 6-Mar-08, at 8:25 PM, David & Alison Webster wrote:


<excerpt>Hi All,            Mar 6, 2008

   I am wondering if this talk was initially scheduled for Apr 1.


   And, if I follow this correctly, tides are caused by too many
people looking at the conditional moon that otherwise would be absent
and therefore unable to exert a gravitational force. And the Bay of
Fundy, with record tidal range, is I suppose the epicenter of
Moonstruckosity.


   And this explains the Buddist Hmm-mmmmmmm.


   But, all things considered, it is a relief to know that all those
things which I don't see (such as hyperbolic functions), don't exist
after all.

Yt, DW, Kentville

</excerpt>


</excerpt><fontfamily><param>Courier</param>

==========================================================================

Patrick Kelly

Director of Computer Facilities

==========================================================================

Faculty of Architecture and Planning

Dalhousie University

==========================================================================

PO Box 1000 Stn Central                5410 Spring Garden Road

Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 2X4           Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 2X4

Canada                                 Canada

==========================================================================

Phone:(902) 494-3294    FAX:(902) 423-6672  
E-mail:patrick.kelly@dal.ca

==========================================================================

</fontfamily>


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