Difference between revisions of "Action at a Distance"
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==Context== | ==Context== | ||
This concept has been argued since Aristotle's time or before. Even Issac Newton was disappointed that his definition of gravity depended on it. Intuitively it seems like action requires contact, but now we know that at the atomic level contact is just action at very short distances. The atoms in two separate bodies just repeal each other very strongly when the get very close to each other. Starting with Michael Faraday, the concept of fields over continuous space take over from ''Action at a Distance'', but that idea fails at very short distances creating problems with infinities over infinitesimal distances. Clearly reality is not continuous at the atomic level. | This concept has been argued since Aristotle's time or before. Even Issac Newton was disappointed that his definition of gravity depended on it. Intuitively it seems like action requires contact, but now we know that at the atomic level contact is just action at very short distances. The atoms in two separate bodies just repeal each other very strongly when the get very close to each other. Starting with Michael Faraday, the concept of fields over continuous space take over from ''Action at a Distance'', but that idea fails at very short distances creating problems with infinities over infinitesimal distances. Clearly reality is not continuous at the atomic level. | ||
| + | ==Problems== | ||
| + | * Spooky ''Action at a Distance'' bothered Einstein when he tried to reconcile [[Entanglement]] with his preference for the calculus of the infintesimal | ||
| + | * Principle of locality – Physical principle that only immediate surroundings can influence an object | ||
| + | * Quantum nonlocality – Deviations from local realism | ||
| + | ==Solutions== | ||
| + | # Stop trying to fit reality into a continuously differentiable space model. | ||
==References== | ==References== | ||
Revision as of 10:34, 19 October 2024
Full Title or Meme
Action at a Distance states that an object's motion can be affected by another object without being in physical contact with it; that is, the non-local interaction of objects that are separated in space.
Context
This concept has been argued since Aristotle's time or before. Even Issac Newton was disappointed that his definition of gravity depended on it. Intuitively it seems like action requires contact, but now we know that at the atomic level contact is just action at very short distances. The atoms in two separate bodies just repeal each other very strongly when the get very close to each other. Starting with Michael Faraday, the concept of fields over continuous space take over from Action at a Distance, but that idea fails at very short distances creating problems with infinities over infinitesimal distances. Clearly reality is not continuous at the atomic level.
Problems
- Spooky Action at a Distance bothered Einstein when he tried to reconcile Entanglement with his preference for the calculus of the infintesimal
- Principle of locality – Physical principle that only immediate surroundings can influence an object
- Quantum nonlocality – Deviations from local realism
Solutions
- Stop trying to fit reality into a continuously differentiable space model.
