On Wednesday, August 28, 2019 at 5:32:23 PM UTC-5, Alan Grayson wrote: > > > > > Phil, how about your considered opinion of his analysis of virtual > particles? As Bruce indicated, some scientists are able to put aside their > religious beliefs in analyzing physical theories. TIA, AG >
I suppose if particles aren't real in one's scheme of things, then any kind of temporary particles aren't either. https://www.mat.univie.ac.at/~neum/physfaq/therm/ For microscopic experiments, the thermal interpretation claims that particles (photons, electrons, alpha particles, etc.) are fiction, simplifications appropriate under special circumstances only. *In reality one has instead beams (states of the electron field, an effective alpha particle field, etc., concentrated along a small neighborhood of a mathematical curve) with approximately known properties (charge densities, spin densities, energy densities, etc.) *If one places a detector into the path of a beam one measures some of these densities - accurately if the densities are high, erratically and inaccurately when they are very low. It is a historical accident that one continues to use the name particle in the many microscopic situations where it is grossly inappropriate to think of it in terms of a tiny bullet moving through space. If one restricts the use of the particle concept to situations where it is appropriate, or if one does not think of particles as ''objects'' - in both cases all mystery is gone, and the foundations become fully rational and intelligible. I doubt anyone is going to find his "physics" useful for anything. *He should just stick to doing numerical analysis and scientific computing, an important area in applied mathematics and computer science.* @philipthrift -- 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/af0b6f58-8434-4041-b3d2-e6f6e96c0819%40googlegroups.com.
