> Hi everyone, I am a complete layman but still got the illusion that > maybe one day I would be able to understand the probability part of MW > if explained in a simple way. I know it's the most controversal part > of MW and that there are several competing understandings of > probability in MW, but still: none of them make sense to me! If every > line of history is realized then how can any line of history be more > probable than any other?
Mathematically, this isn't that hard to understand. For example, consider the equation (1 / (x^2)) between 1 and positive infinity on the x axis. The total area under the curve is 1, so it's a valid probability distribution. The area between x = 1 and x = 2 is 1/2, or 50%. So if you pick a "random" point on the real number line between 1 and infinity, using that distribution, half the time that point will land between 1 and 2. For any segment of the real line, you can determine exactly what the probability will be that a point will fall on it--even though the distribution extends forever. The fact that there's an infinite number of choices doesn't mean that those choices can't be normalized to a probability distribution. Gaussians (normal curves) describe most of the real data we measure in the sciences, in one way or another--and the mathematical expression for a Gaussian extends out forever. Physics is filled with probabilities over infinite domains. Anna --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
