In the beginning ...

[thestoat]

I don't know any virgins ...

[MajGenl.Meade]

...right, bring on the 72 virgins and bottomless flagons of mead!

I was prepared to get very upset until I re-read it. It doesn't say flagless bottoms of meade

Relieved
Meade

[loCAtek]

Yer a General, not an Admiral; with all due respect, sir.

[thestoat]

Andrew, I am still wondering if you can see that approximating large numbers to infinity can actually be very useful, if you understand the maths. Or perhaps you still don't agree? And to enlighten me with an explanation of quantum mechanics or a statement that you disagree with it?

[oldr_n_wsr]

...right, bring on the 72 virgins and bottomless flagons of mead!

Will I still have to remain sober in the afterlife?

[loCAtek]

Spiritual life is intoxicating enough.

[thestoat]

Spiritual life is intoxicating enough.

Indeed it is, hic

[loCAtek]

'Cathalcoholics Anonymous' motto:

WWJD-

What would Jesus Drink?

Water into Wine was not a suggestion but a sacrament!

Be Baptised with Booze- saith the Lawd!

...I got better!

[thestoat]

Andrew

Over a week and you haven't replied to my answers to your questions, or my following questions. Two possible conclusions are

1. You have been too busy
2. You have seen your errors but are too proud to admit it

I'll assume the former

[Andrew D]

I have had time only for a few very brief postings lately; I have been (and still am) awash in a sea of paper. I find the more interesting conversation here to be the one I am having with General Meade, to which the one I am having with you is tangential, so we'll see what happens when I get back to this thread.

Speaking of unanswered questions, I still do not see your explanation, in English, how it can be that the number of minutes in an infinite number of hours is the same as that infinite number of hours without a minute's being equal to an hour.

[quaddriver]

would it help to know that as two objects grow very large, the ability to measure the overall magnitude of each object with certain accuracy diminishes rapidly.

or put it this way, on earth the distance between uranium atoms is so small to defy direct measurement...but there is distance. however you dont see it that way when you run into a wall of it.

you see a wall of uranium made like a shop window - big spaces
then a wall arranged like venetian blinds
then a solid wall, yet we know or rather infer no such thing exists.

generally speaking, everything we as humans do and everything you experience is refined no more than what is called a 'tenth', meaning .0001 inch. it seems to work.

In math 'infinity' is 'more than i can calculate'. 60 times more than i can calculate is still more than I can calculate, or equality. thus the basic assumption that 1/x = 0 for large X, holds. same as y=x^^2 graphs two parallel lines after a while - you ability to prove they are not parallel by any measurement vanishes.

better measuring tools simply means the measuring goes on a little longer. no more, no less.

[Crackpot]

the simple answer Andrew is you're stuck thinking of an infinite number in finite terms. read theat hotel infinity link I posted it should help clear (or muddy) things up on how thngs can be added (and mutlplied) into infinity without effecting it's size.

[thestoat]

CP, I had mentioned that to Andrew a while back, that he treats infinity just as a really big number, but I don't think he got it.

Andrew - I'll happily continue to try to explain the answer to your question, though a little reciprocation would be nice, eh? It is all too easy in a debate to keep firing questions but never answer any. I have answered lots of yours. I await your answers - particularly keen to know how accurate your calculator is. As for your discussion with Meade, I am not sure how you can continue that when you show such a lack of understanding of infinity which appears to underlie that topic.

[thestoat]

on earth the distance between uranium atoms is so small to defy direct measurement...but there is distance

It is interesting - all matter is mostly made of of space. If you look at a brick wall, over 99.999% of it is space around its constituent atoms - but it doesn't mean you can walk through it

[oldr_n_wsr]

If you look at a brick wall, over 99.999% of it is space around its constituent atoms - but it doesn't mean you can walk through it

I can confirm that.

[loCAtek]

Weirdest of all, quantum physicists say that unless certain conditions are met, these subatomic particles don’t actually exist. At least I think that ’s what they’re saying. These are pretty complicated concepts, and suggest a very different view of things. But here’s my problem: Since, at the most basic level we’re just a bunch of particles, I hope this doesn’t mean what I'm afraid it does—that in some very scary way, I'm not really here.


Now for the bad news: If I'm not really here, neither are you. It’s a lot more complicated, but the bottom line is that if we’re not really here, then nothing we think, say, or do means anything, right? What ’s the point of being good? Why do I spend two hours at the gym every day? What really happened to that delicious steak I ate for dinner? This stuff is enough to keep anyone up at night! So my relentless curiosity and simple need to know is what lead me to my passion for Quantum Physics.

What is Quantum Physics in a nutshell? It’s a fascinating branch of science that describes the nature of the incredibly small. As Niels Bohr once said, “Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it.”

Tim - a really, smart, funny tool-using primate- Allen

[loCAtek]

Now, I find the above really metaphysical, others may find it really scientific ...could it be they are the same thing?

[loCAtek]

[MajGenl.Meade]

So I now have a more satisfying answer as to what that darn table is made out of, but as an altar boy back then, I also asked the other big questions—

I guess that explains a lot. Poor man.

[loCAtek]

to be honest, that wasn't what I was expecting. Why do you say that?