Comments on: Elsewhere http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/02/22/elsewhere/ Random samplings from a universe of ideas. Tue, 14 Feb 2012 12:14:22 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Science http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/02/22/elsewhere/comment-page-1/#comment-12579 Science Thu, 23 Feb 2006 10:33:56 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/02/22/elsewhere/#comment-12579 Young falsely claimed that light somehow cancels out at the dark fringes on the screen. We know energy is conserved. Light simply doesn't arrive at the dark fringes (if it does, what happens to it, especially where you fire one photon at a time!!!!!!????). So what really happens with light is interference near the double slits, which is not the case for water wave type interference (water waves are longitudinal so interfere at the screen, light waves have a transverse feature which allows interference to occur even when a single photon passes through one of two slits, if the second slit is nearby, i.e., within a wavelength or so!). Young falsely claimed that light somehow cancels out at the dark fringes on the screen.

We know energy is conserved. Light simply doesn’t arrive at the dark fringes (if it does, what happens to it, especially where you fire one photon at a time!!!!!!????).

So what really happens with light is interference near the double slits, which is not the case for water wave type interference (water waves are longitudinal so interfere at the screen, light waves have a transverse feature which allows interference to occur even when a single photon passes through one of two slits, if the second slit is nearby, i.e., within a wavelength or so!).

]]> By: PK http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/02/22/elsewhere/comment-page-1/#comment-12578 PK Wed, 22 Feb 2006 20:35:53 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/02/22/elsewhere/#comment-12578 Where is Young's double-slit experiment? Using single photons as the light source it reveals all counterintuitive aspects of quantum mechanics. No list of best physics experiments should be without it. Where is Young’s double-slit experiment? Using single photons as the light source it reveals all counterintuitive aspects of quantum mechanics. No list of best physics experiments should be without it.

]]> By: Garrett http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/02/22/elsewhere/comment-page-1/#comment-12577 Garrett Wed, 22 Feb 2006 19:39:13 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/02/22/elsewhere/#comment-12577 This is a bit premature, as I'm still shaking the bugs out and only beginning to add content... but I'm working on a personal physics research wiki (rather than a blog) that may nevertheless be appropriate to add to your list: <a href="http://deferentialgeometry.org/" rel="nofollow">Deferential Geometry</a> I'm adding a few pages of notes a day. It will take me a couple of months to really get it into full gear. And be warned that it may not be happy with the latest Firefox 1.5.0.1. But, well, it's new... and it will get better. This is a bit premature, as I’m still shaking the bugs out and only beginning to add content… but I’m working on a personal physics research wiki (rather than a blog) that may nevertheless be appropriate to add to your list:

Deferential Geometry

I’m adding a few pages of notes a day. It will take me a couple of months to really get it into full gear. And be warned that it may not be happy with the latest Firefox 1.5.0.1.

But, well, it’s new… and it will get better.

]]> By: Science http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/02/22/elsewhere/comment-page-1/#comment-12576 Science Wed, 22 Feb 2006 16:37:17 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2006/02/22/elsewhere/#comment-12576 '...not manifestly crazy...' 'We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question which divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct. My own feeling is that it is not crazy enough.' - Niels Bohr to Wolfgang Pauli, 1957. Pauli had written to Fierz, 12 August 1948: 'I think the important and extremely difficult task of our time is to try to build up a fresh idea of reality.' It is interesting Pauli also invented the put-down 'not even wrong' to dismiss non-predictive nonsense. People often seem to dismiss ideas as being 'crazy' and fail to remember that the neutrino was just such a suggestion (Bohr initially argued that beta decay could be explained by a statistical violation of energy conservation!). There is no correlation between being crazy and being wrong. ‘…not manifestly crazy…’

‘We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question which divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct. My own feeling is that it is not crazy enough.’ – Niels Bohr to Wolfgang Pauli, 1957.

Pauli had written to Fierz, 12 August 1948: ‘I think the important and extremely difficult task of our time is to try to build up a fresh idea of reality.’

It is interesting Pauli also invented the put-down ‘not even wrong’ to dismiss non-predictive nonsense. People often seem to dismiss ideas as being ‘crazy’ and fail to remember that the neutrino was just such a suggestion (Bohr initially argued that beta decay could be explained by a statistical violation of energy conservation!). There is no correlation between being crazy and being wrong.

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