A Conversation for Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle
Time and Energy
J'au-æmne Started conversation Aug 18, 2000
The other, lesser known side to the Heisenburg Uncertainty Principle is the minimum error in time and energy. This is what allows neuclear decay to take place (as well as the weak force) - over a very short period of time, an alpha particle can 'borrow' enough energy to break through the potential barrier that its on one side of - it just has to be quick.
(well, thats what I took my lecturer to mean...)
Super Strings: Space,Time, Matter and Energy and the OTHER 22 dimensions
Sharron aka FartFar The Priest(#106383) Posted Aug 19, 2000
This "borrowed" energy is how virtual particles are created, ie gravitons carrying the gravitational force, gluons carrying the strong force etc. They take the energy while the universe is not looking.....which gives rise to these ghost particles. These create a wave of probability and conversely a wave of improbability. Of course anything which is virtually impossible must logically be a finite improbability. Hence the creation of an improbability drive
Super Strings: Space,Time, Matter and Energy and the OTHER 22 dimensions
The Cow Posted Aug 19, 2000
It is theoretically possible for a improbability drive ship to appear out of nothing, as long as an anti-improbability drive ship appears at the other end, very close to a black hole, so the antiship gets sucked in, but the ship doesn't.
Of course, the odds of this are likely to be 1/(2^304500)^887401
(ie: small)
Super Strings: Space,Time, Matter and Energy and the OTHER 22 dimensions
Saint Taco-Chako (P.S. of mixed metaphors) Posted Aug 22, 2000
But according to the laws of General Narrative Fiction, which are roughly twice as powerful as any mere "Laws of Thermodynamics", that just makes the Improbability drive all the more probable.
Super Strings: Space,Time, Matter and Energy and the OTHER 22 dimensions
The Cow Posted Aug 25, 2000
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