Quantum Tunneling Is Not Instantaneous, Physicists Show

submitted by magnora7 from (scientificamerican.com)

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[–]magnora7[S] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (10 children)

This is good. This is what I had hoped was the case. This means "locality" is intact, and things cannot actually travel faster than light.

Quantum Physics doesn't break nearly as many rules as scientists seem to think it does. Somewhere along the line the word "quantum" became a codeword for "Anything is possible! This breaks all the rules!" and I think that detracts greatly from the science itself. Even scientists get wrapped up in this type of "magical" thinking, and it does science a disservice in my opinion.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Well, I mean, I think it's kind of sad this happens. The implications of the speed of light just always being immutable are kind of horrible. Inter-generation ships required to ever get anywhere at all, and with a good degree of certainty there's never going to be anywhere to be able to get to.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

The implications of the speed of light just always being immutable are kind of horrible

Speed limits are good for the math though. Without "c", a lot of things become non-sensical and you lose all semblance of causality.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Doesn't bode well for our species.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Idk that seems pretty selfish. Why should the universe accommodate us? Better that it follows causality and makes sense than give us loopholes.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Of course it is. Anything that's alive desires to keep living even against its own will. Of course we want that to happen. Most of our fiction in some sense amounts to this.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

This means "locality" is intact

This doesn't impact entanglement though

[–][deleted]  (3 children)

[deleted]

    [–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

    I think it just appears that way because we don't understand it well enough.

    [–][deleted]  (1 child)

    [deleted]

      [–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

      The uncertainty principle just means the waveform is distributed instead of a point particle, that doesn't mean they've discarded determinism. It just means the description becomes a density cloud shape instead of a point particle. The amount of determinism is the same. It's true we can't always predict the location of the waveform collapse, but we often can't predict what direction lightning will go exactly either, but that doesn't make it non-deterministic