Re: Particle Position

[Ron Ebert <ebert@CITRUS.UCR.EDU>]

At 01:24 PM 5/11/99 -0400, Chuck Britton wrote:

> I'm certainly no expert on such things but hasn't the 'Ahrenhov-Bohm
> effect been verified. Sumpthin to do with phase interference in
> conductive circuits.

Yes it has. The Bohm-Aharanov effect is where magnetic flux inside a
solenoid affects the phase of electron waves passing outside the solenoid.
This is yet another indication of the "takes all paths, non-local" nature
of quantum phenomena. But it has nothing to do with confirming Bohm's
contention that non-local hidden variables set the values of the dynamic
attributes.

> A PREDICTIVE ability such as this makes them contenders???

Yes. Contenders. Still not to take too seriously until and unless an
experiment is carried out (hopefully more than one) and the prediction is
confirmed. The fact that a prediction can be made puts a hypothesis in the
ball park of science. Non-falsifiable assertions are not really part of
science. It is no more fruitful to say there are non-local hidden variables
behind quantum phenomena, or that the universe splits off into multiples
when a measurement is made, than it is to say the universe was just created
two minutes ago complete with all the evidence to show it is billions of
years old. None of these latter statements can be tested in any way.


Ron Ebert
ron.ebert@ucr.edu
:::::::::::::::::

There seems to be broad agreement that FTL travel is unlikely. I claim that
it is unlikely in the extreme. Yet most science fiction, particularly that
seen on TV, utterly ignores this fact to the point where J. Q. Public
simply accepts the feasability of FTL travel without a second thought. This
concerns me for the following reason: it displays a willingness to ignore
what we know about the universe simply because we don't like it. That is
the basis for all of the pseudosciences. Open-mindedness and wishful
thinking are two different things! Greg Crinklaw, Astro List