Science

eridani

(51,907 posts) Tue Jul 17, 2012, 05:07 AM Jul 2012

Get in BOTH lanes!

6 replies

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Get in BOTH lanes! (Original Post) eridani Jul 2012 OP

But can one really know which lane one is in? longship Jul 2012 #1

You can look, and you can get into both lanes baldguy Jul 2012 #2

Sorry, you've got it wrong. longship Jul 2012 #3

Don't worry, the grasshopper at the fork in the road is observing. tridim Jul 2012 #4

Each lane is a parallel universe. Odin2005 Jul 2012 #5

Does this mean that those waiting for Godot need to watch both lanes or just one? Tyrs WolfDaemon Jul 2012 #6

longship

(40,416 posts)

1. But can one really know which lane one is in?

Reply to eridani (Original post)

Tue Jul 17, 2012, 05:24 AM

Jul 2012

Maybe nobody is looking. Does that mean you have to go through both lanes? I think so. Maybe only a Volvo four cylinder can do it safely.

baldguy

(36,649 posts)

2. You can look, and you can get into both lanes

Reply to longship (Reply #1)

Tue Jul 17, 2012, 06:05 AM

Jul 2012

Bot you won't know where you are or how fast you're going.

longship

(40,416 posts)

3. Sorry, you've got it wrong.

Reply to baldguy (Reply #2)

Tue Jul 17, 2012, 06:43 AM

Jul 2012

It is not that you can't know where you are going or how fast you are going. Heisenberg says that they are complementary metrics. You can know where you are going if you do not know how fast you are going -- actually, momentum, which includes your mass.

Also, the extent to which you know your momentum, is the extent to which you do not know the position.

The two metrics -- momentum and position -- are complements, in the mathematical sense. Similarly, time and energy are also complementary. But I won't go into that here. Too much woo has already been woven around that theory.