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Originally Posted by Max Vondel
Craig, I think of Quantum Mechanical as a probability function, uncollapsed waveform
In Classic the wave form has collapsed and the probability is lost to a definite state. Unsure if that helps
PB
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Hi Peter;
Thanks for your post .. interesting .. exploring wavefunctions for a bit might be an interesting exercise ..
Correct me (anyone) if I’ve got any of the following wrong .. I’m also learning about QM with every step here, so here goes ...
I haven’t found anywhere in any of the main QM interpretations where it actually states that quantum interactions
are probability waves. I also think that the main famous ‘Interpretations’, like deBroglie-Bohm and Many-Worlds, contain A LOT of Classical determinism, actually.
At best, ‘Many Worlds’ seems to explain
non-observations of ‘pure states‘ evolving in a determinable way, purely because our observations can’t detect the full ‘wavefunction’ of many worlds. DeBroglie-Bohm seems to
start out interpreting quantum interactions as ‘fundamentally probability waves’ .. and a lack of history info about the system of interest, is caused by something unknown, but external to it (suspiciously very Godel-like and Classical Chaos Theory-like). This hence, seems to be the ultimate expression of Classical determinism at work, to me.
The Copenhagan interpretation seems to have fallen somewhat out of favour in QM Physics circles thesedays (from snooping around a bit ... something disliked about the ‘Heisenberg Gap’ approach ?)
Anyway, if three of the main QM interpretations don’t strongly bestow
purely probabilistic behaviours as the exclusive domain of ‘QM’, then even these traditionally QM behaviours, don’t necessarily distinguish QM over Classical (as is commonly inferred). Also, as mentioned above, these interpretations also seem to be coming from very Classical, hence deterministic principles.
Another area usually used to distinguish QM, is Wavefunction Superposition. So, Classical Mechanics treats ‘particles’ as particles. It would seem illogical to superimpose one particle on another in Classical. But I still think it could be done (??) Superposition is kind of a ‘wave’ concept, so how does one get a wave out of a particle.
Perhaps the path of a particle could be seen to be described by using superposition ?... I know in electrical field theory, superposition is all over the place (eg: Maxwell’s equations, from Classical). Fourier analysis is a good ‘flow-on’ example of this, too.
It also seems that QM talks a lot about wave amplitudes (there’s not much ‘non-classical’ about that).
Surprisingly, its tough to find anything which definitively says that QM is based on ‘probability waves’, also.
So it seems, that perhaps even ‘wavefunctions’, ‘wavefunction superposition’ and ‘probability waves’, may not necessarily be exclusively ‘owned’ by QM.
Cheers