Re: [Phys-l] teaching different descriptions of "reality"

[Jack Uretsky <jlu@hep.anl.gov>]

	The answer to your question is, "No".  The coulomb force, for 
example, does not come from photon exchange.  EM waves interact with 
matter through photon exchange.  The EM potential can be divided into 
longitudinal and transverse parts; only the transverse part is quantized. 
The longitudinal part gives the coulomb force.
					Regards,
						Jack


On Wed, 19 Apr 2006, Brian Blais wrote:

> Jack Uretsky wrote:
> > Hi all-
> >  	Brian Blais writes, in part, with respect to the trajectory of a
> > thrown ball:
> >  > 5) quantum gravity: the ball exchanges gravitons with the Earth,
> > > which influe$> path
> >
> >  	Sorry, Brian.  This is a complete misconception.  "Gravitons"
> > represent the interactions of gravitational waves which are far too weak
> > to perceptibly influence the trajectory of a thrown baseball.
>
> thanks for the correction!  I knew I should have read more about it before
> speaking...  :)
>
> But, the modern quantum description of interaction is entirely due to particle
> exchange, yes?  or am I mistake on that too (it's been a while since I've looked at
> it, and I don't think that I ever studied gravity with respect to these things).
>
> How does string theory describe this process of the ball going up and down in the
> Earth's gravitational field?
>
>
> 			bb

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