On 10/23/2014 10:08 AM, John Clark wrote:
On Wed, Oct 22, 2014 at 10:29 PM, meekerdb <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>> Quantum mechanics works very well, but every time we've tested it
with experiment the values we put into it and the values we measure
after the
experiment have only had values at best a dozen or so places to the
right of the
decimal point. Are we justified in extrapolating from that that it
would work
just as well if there were a infinite number if digits to the right of
the
decimal point? I honestly don't know.
> I think it's just a convenience for reasoning about rational numbers.
But then I
also think rational numbers are just part of our model of the world.
I'm more worried about the Real Numbers than the Rational Numbers, particularly the
non-computable Real Numbers which are almost all of them.
They are non-computable by a Turing machine - which is already assumed to have unlimited
tape and time. It is likely that in the real world almost all integers are not computable
too.
Brent
And they're certainly part of our model of the world just as epicycles and crystalline
spheres surrounding the Earth were part of the Medieval model, but I want to know if the
Real Numbers are part of, not of our model, but part of our the world .
John K Clark
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything
List" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to
[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Everything List" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to [email protected].
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
