All Questions
Tagged with probability determinism
26 questions
11
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3
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2k
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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. ...
0
votes
0
answers
21
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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 ...
10
votes
6
answers
3k
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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 ...
6
votes
3
answers
880
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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.
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1
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1
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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\...
-1
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1
answer
55
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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 ...
2
votes
3
answers
175
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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 ...
2
votes
1
answer
62
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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 ...
3
votes
4
answers
911
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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 ...
0
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0
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50
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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 ...
0
votes
1
answer
89
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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'...
4
votes
3
answers
4k
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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....
6
votes
1
answer
687
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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 ...
8
votes
2
answers
908
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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 ...
-1
votes
2
answers
444
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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 ...