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11 votes
3 answers
2k views

What's the probability distribution of when the ball will fall from Norton's dome?

Suppose our world is completely described by Newtonian mechanics. All the materials are rigid and can be cut infinitesimally. There exist scenarios where the future is intrinsically probabilistic. ...
Eric's user avatar
  • 303
0 votes
0 answers
21 views

Laplace's demon and quantum mechanics paradox of not influencing our world? [duplicate]

We may regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its past and the cause of its future. An intellect which at a certain moment would know all forces that set nature in motion, and all ...
Pranjal Kumar's user avatar
10 votes
6 answers
3k views

How are quantum systems different from dice?

I've had this question for a while: Is a state space $\mathcal{H}$ for a quantum system just a sample space in a probability space? The question arises because i can't really tell a difference between ...
Simón Flavio Ibañez's user avatar
6 votes
3 answers
880 views

How does indeterminism lead to deterministic laws?

Philosophers and many scientists seem to distinguish between the macro and micro world a lot. Things in the micro world seem to be indeterministic, atleast through the standard interpretation of QM. ...
user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
52 views

Are scattering experiments probabilistic in quantum mechanics?

Suppose we have a electron that will scatter into an atom. When the electron is far way of the atom long before the scattering the system is represented by the state $\left|\psi_\text{in}\right\...
amilton moreira's user avatar
-1 votes
1 answer
55 views

What is the Main contrast between classical coin toss and superposition state?

We know that in normal coin-toss there is two probable states HEAD OR TAIL. When we commence for measuring only get head or tail,is it means two probable states collapse into one {H or T}.in ...
dr.dibyendu jana's user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
175 views

Does my thought experiment adequately address quantum entanglement?

My friend and I (both still undergraduates) were discussing philosophy. He is a fairly strong supporter of determinism, and I am still trying to find out my opinion. So in the spirit of good-natured ...
RudyJD's user avatar
  • 481
2 votes
1 answer
62 views

Determinisitic system with a probablisitic initial condition [closed]

Consider a deterministic system like a spring mass damper. Lets say we do not know the exact initial condition but we are given a probability distribution function (PDF), $p(x,v,t = 0)$ of the mass's ...
Rohit John's user avatar
3 votes
4 answers
911 views

Flipping a coin with same initial conditions

Today, in my physics class my teacher was talking about how we can never predict the outcome of a coin flip. So I thought: Will the outcome of a coin flip be the same if we do not change the initial ...
NoLand'sMan's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
50 views

How deterministic nature of our world emerges?

Quantum mechanics shows that nature is non-deterministic. But the world we see around us seems deterministic. Take for an example: harmonic oscillator when $n$ becomes very large the probability ...
aitfel's user avatar
  • 3,103
0 votes
1 answer
89 views

What determines the determinism of observables?

It is well known that there exists certain class of physical observables like momentum and position which are common to both classical and quantum mechanics, and has different 'kinds of predictability'...
Shivam Sunehra's user avatar
4 votes
3 answers
4k views

Is quantum mechanics truly probabilistic?

Probability arises inherently from a lack of information. For example, if I were to take a ball out of a bag with 3 yellow and 2 white balls, I would have a 0.6 probability of getting a yellow and a 0....
ashiswin's user avatar
  • 257
6 votes
1 answer
687 views

How do we know that radioactive decay is memoryless?

Let $\tau$ be the random variable that describes the lifetime of a given particle. It seems to conform to common-sense that $\mathbf{P}(\tau>t+s|\tau>s)=\mathbf{P}(\tau>t)$, as it would be ...
Zachary Goodsell's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
908 views

Schrodinger's "What is life " book quote: : The laws of physics are statistical in nature [closed]

In the book What is life? by Erwin Schrodinger, he says that the laws of physics are statistical in nature. Today, thanks to the ingenious work of biologists, mainly of geneticists, during the ...
Srinivas Reddy Thatiparthy's user avatar
-1 votes
2 answers
444 views

If I repeated a quantum measurement, would it be the same? [closed]

I was thinking about the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics and that if I measured the position of an electron twice in succession, the outcomes would depend on a probability. However, what if ...
GuPe's user avatar
  • 176

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