The Fool wrote: > If you could overcome the effects of gravity and slow an object's (such > as a space probe's) absolute velocity to very close to but not quite > zero, would the uncertanty principle cause the object's position to > become so uncertain that it 'jumps' for lack of a better term, > significantly long distances to be useful in say, exploring the > universe at vast distances from the sol system?
Now this is an interesting question! Warren Ockrassa wrote: > > Umm, I don't think the term "absolute velocity" means anything in an > > expanding universe, nor does the idea of making it 0. A very good point, but I think The Fool is talking about the velocity (or maybe more interestingly, the momentum) with regard to the reference frame of the place from which it was launched. i.e.: most likely Earth. By reducing the momentum to zero, you know exactly how much momentum the craft has, which then introduces the uncertainty in the spacecraft's position. But I think there's one major problem here, beside the definitional problem Warren mentioned: The thing is, Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principles are really meant to describe quantum mechanical or microscopic phenomena. Look at the equation: [(Uncertainty in momentum) times (uncertainty in position)] is greater than or equal to [(Planck's Constant) divided by (two times Pi)] (dp X dX) >= (h/2Pi) Planck's Constant is incredibly tiny, so the delta x of any macroscopic object would also be very small. And if delta p was zero, you'd end up with a singularity on the right hand side of the equation when trying to determine delta x, which is impossible. -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.338 / Virus Database: 267.10.8/71 - Release Date: 8/12/2005 _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
