- #1
esmeralda4
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Hi. I'm currently reading 'The Goldilocks Enigma' by Paul Davies. In it he attempts to explain some areas of Quantum Mechanics in laymans terms and writes...
"Quantum randomness, by contrast, is irreducible, which is to say that quantum processes are in some sense genuinely spontaneous - without any specific cause."
He later gives an example of virtual particles spontaneously appearing as a result of vacuum fluctuations. He claims that this 'randomness' was the reason Einstein hated quantum mechanics and declared "God does not play dice with the Universe".
The book was written 2006. Are Paul Davies views above on 'quantum randomness' still valid?
My question and thoughts about it are as follows...
How do we know that quantum fluctuations are truly random and not instead the result of some other force or energy - The mechanism of which is still beyond our understanding.
For example the chaotic flow of smoke rising from a candle is not 'random' but just impossibly difficult to calculate. Could this be true of quantum fluctuations but on an immense scale?
To sum up my question is this...
If quantum fluctuations are truly random and without cause how do we know this is true?
Many thanks for reading this.
"Quantum randomness, by contrast, is irreducible, which is to say that quantum processes are in some sense genuinely spontaneous - without any specific cause."
He later gives an example of virtual particles spontaneously appearing as a result of vacuum fluctuations. He claims that this 'randomness' was the reason Einstein hated quantum mechanics and declared "God does not play dice with the Universe".
The book was written 2006. Are Paul Davies views above on 'quantum randomness' still valid?
My question and thoughts about it are as follows...
How do we know that quantum fluctuations are truly random and not instead the result of some other force or energy - The mechanism of which is still beyond our understanding.
For example the chaotic flow of smoke rising from a candle is not 'random' but just impossibly difficult to calculate. Could this be true of quantum fluctuations but on an immense scale?
To sum up my question is this...
If quantum fluctuations are truly random and without cause how do we know this is true?
Many thanks for reading this.