Question for a Physicist

[Whateverist]

Seems to me like a really bad example for anything. The electron radiates off a photon, and the energy the photon gets is carried by the electron before that. I don't know how that would qualify as creation from nothing. Sure, the electron is still there after the radiation event, but is that what creation from nothing is?

I wonder if my father weighed the same after I was born as he did before the insemination?

[Whateverist]

Krauss proves even a jerk can be good with mathematics. I find his demeanor disagreeable.

[Alex K]

Krauss proves even a jerk can be good with mathematics.  I find his demeanor disagreeable.

He can be a bit of a jackass. My PhD work was based on an idea of one of his former students which became one of the most cited theoretical physics papers of the decade. Krauss' commentary on it was something like "I didn't find it very convincing, but at least it got him tenure".

[Excited Penguin]

I'll take jackass over saccharine any day. Besides, you guys are dangerously approaching an ad hominem, at least in spirit, if not in form.

[Whateverist]

I'll take jackass over saccharine any day. Besides, you guys are dangerously approaching an ad hominem, at least in spirit, if not in form.

Ironical.

[Arkilogue]

I watched a discussion forum in which Lawrence Krauss gave an example of "something from nothing". He said that when an electron emits a photon something is created from nothing because the electron is not diminished in any way. So, for us non-scientists, is this a good reply to use when arguing with those theists that say something can not come from nothing? Does this reply reveal a basic principle of nature that extends to a more universal application in debate?

Didn't the electron absorb energy to then throw it off as a photon?

[Excited Penguin]

I'll take jackass over saccharine any day. Besides, you guys are dangerously approaching an ad hominem, at least in spirit, if not in form.

Ironical.

How so?

[Arkilogue]

So essentially the electron has gathered this energy then releases it in the form of a photon?

Yup. In the language of feynman diagrams, the electron absorbs a bit of energy and "goes off the mass shell" as the jargon says, which means it briefly violates the E=mc^2 relation in order to store the energy which then gets pumpted e.g. into a newly created photon.

[bennyboy]

Krauss proves even a jerk can be good with mathematics.  I find his demeanor disagreeable.

He can be a bit of a jackass. My PhD work was based on an idea of one of his former students which became one of the most cited theoretical physics papers of the decade. Krauss' commentary on it was something like "I didn't find it very convincing, but at least it got him tenure".

Physics trolling.  I love it!

[chimp3]

OK! Debate with philosophers and one theologian worthy of watching in its entirety. But , cut to the chase and watch 24:00 to 27:00 to witness claim that electron emitting photon is example of something from nothing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFAko80vgwg