Paradoxes

[Edwardo Piet]

Thanks for explaining it Adrian.

"This statement has no truth value until you give it one" I forgot to do that lol....I was just saying...how is it a paradox if you don't know the truth?

I messed up and went off-topic and missed the whole point lol....oh well...atleast it's my topic that I digressed from lol!

[Tiberius]

Yeah, paradoxes only work if you start doing stuff to them

[Edwardo Piet]

Lol hehe! I guess that's why there are no paradoxes in reality....

But what about that idea that a wave in an atom is also a particle at the same time. I said to this guy that it can't be both at the same time because that's a contradiction...it must be switching back and forth so INCREDIBLY FAST (or something like that) that it just can't be measured and it looks like it's both a wave and a particle at the same time....

And he said to me: "No no...it really is BOTH at EXACTLY the same time."

This confused me what do you think about this wave and particle thing?

[Darwinian]

In the wonderful world of quantum physics the laws of nature are totally counter intuitive.

So, yes, they can be both a wave and particle at the same time. It's also quite normal for the same particle to exist in more than one location at the same time as well. Not two of the same particle but the same one.

Also, even in a complete vacuum particles are winking into existence and then destroying each other and they do this by borrowing energy from their future to create themselves in the first place.

It's also normal for an effect to precede it's cause.

I think that you will find that the quantum world is the real thing and this reality we occupy with it's stars and galaxies and time running in one direction and cause and effect etc. is just a strange, transient side effect.

[Edwardo Piet]

In the wonderful world of quantum physics the laws of nature are totally counter intuitive.

So, yes, they can be both a wave and particle at the same time. It's also quite normal for the same particle to exist in more than one location at the same time as well. Not two of the same particle but the same one.

Also, even in a complete vacuum particles are winking into existence and then destroying each other and they do this by borrowing energy from their future to create themselves in the first place.

It's also normal for an effect to precede it's cause.

I think that you will find that the quantum world is the real thing and this reality we occupy with it's stars and galaxies and time running in one direction and cause and effect etc. is just a strange, transient side effect.

If this is true - and I ATLEAST temporarily assume it is... - then it is very very very interesting indeed.

Hmm, are particles and waves somewhat scientifically omnipotent? In the sense that they are everywhere at once...past present and future?

[Darwinian]

It simply means that on the scale of particles the laws of nature that we know and love and have been brought up with simply don't apply.

It has always been the popular notion to imagine the atom as a proton and neutron in the centre with electrons flying around. A bit like a solar system. This is a good way to explain it and one we can understand but in reality they are not like that at all.

In fact, they are dimensionless concepts that don't really exist in a way that we can readily apply to our everyday experience.

The first thing you are told at University when you do your PHD in physics is to forget everything you have been taught about physics because nothing that you have learnt at school or seen on the T.V. comes close to this weird and chaotic world.

[ignoramus]

In the wonderful world of quantum physics the laws of nature are totally counter intuitive.

So, yes, they can be both a wave and particle at the same time.  It's also quite normal for the same particle to exist in more than one location at the same time as well.  Not two of the same particle but the same one.

Also, even in a complete vacuum particles are winking into existence and then destroying each other and they do this by borrowing energy from their future to create themselves in the first place.

It's also normal for an effect to precede it's cause.

I think that you will find that the quantum world is the real thing and this reality we occupy with it's stars and galaxies and time running in one direction and cause and effect etc. is just a strange, transient side effect.

I absolutely love this! Yeah, necro I know but worth sharing!!!
(Considering this was posted before quantum mechanics was invented!)

[I_am_not_mafia]

A paradox just reveals a flaw in our understanding, or in the tools we use for reasoning.

So natural paradoxes would be how life creates order when the second law of thermodynamics increases disorder, or how life, recognised as being thermodynamically far from equilibrium can self organise when self organisation works by minimising free energy. Or Maxwell's demon could be considered a paradox. But all the above aren't actually paradoxes because we can now explain why. Life does not violate the second law of thermodynamics because order is created locally while entropy is increased globally. A similar argument can be used for Maxwell's demon (it requires energy to function). And life self organises to be thermodynamically far from equilibrium because it results in more entropy being created over time.

My favourite logical paradox is similar to the Cretian liar paradox. It's the Grelling-Nelson paradox, but this only exists because it's a quirk of language that has been created . I find it useful to refer to when theists start waffling on about logic existing independent of humans.

[Edwardo Piet]

I like Curry's paradox. It's hilarious.

[vorlon13]

there are 2 kinds of people; the folks who think there are 2 kinds of people, and those who don't