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NIST Physicists Coax Six Atoms Into Quantum 'Cat' State
Science Daily | National Institute of Standards and Technology ^ | 2005-12-03

Posted on 12/03/2005 10:24:55 PM PST by sourcery

click here to read article


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To: PatrickHenry

Thanks for the ping!


81 posted on 12/04/2005 10:55:28 AM PST by Alamo-Girl
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To: AntiGuv

well, it also can mean:
1. "I don't know, so quit bugging me."
2. "No one knows, because the web of causality is too big and complicated and old to ever trace back to the ultimate roots or describe in detail all the way from the root through all its permutations to the event about which you are bugging me."
3. "I'm bigger and stronger than you are, and I'll mulch you if you keep bugging me, so there!"


82 posted on 12/04/2005 11:09:25 AM PST by King Prout (many accuse me of being overly literal... this would not be a problem if many were not under-precise)
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To: Alamo-Girl

you'll like this thread :)


83 posted on 12/04/2005 11:09:58 AM PST by King Prout (many accuse me of being overly literal... this would not be a problem if many were not under-precise)
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To: balrog666

That's right. In describing rotation they are powerful.


84 posted on 12/04/2005 11:21:41 AM PST by RightWhale (Not transferable -- Good only for this trip)
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To: RightWhale
That's right. In describing rotation they are powerful.

Yep, very, very useful. Fun too.

85 posted on 12/04/2005 11:24:17 AM PST by balrog666 (A myth by any other name is still inane.)
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To: King Prout

If a pattern is not regular, it is only that the higher pattern has not been perceived. What of the precession of the equinox? Do we have enough data to see a pattern there, not to mention explaining the pattern? Yet, most people would say, 'of course,' not having any explanation besides wobble as if it is as incomprehensible as the shimmy in the front end of a Chevy Vega of undetermined age.


86 posted on 12/04/2005 11:27:56 AM PST by RightWhale (Not transferable -- Good only for this trip)
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To: King Prout

Thank you for the ping! It does look quite interesting.


87 posted on 12/04/2005 11:31:51 AM PST by Alamo-Girl
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To: balrog666

Hamilton was so impressed with his spatiotemporal Dublin insight that, not having pencil and paper handy, he made his wife wait on their Sunday stroll while he carved the equation--Daniel Boone in the wilderness of Kentucky making note on a tree of a meeting with a bear--into the stone of Broome Bridge on their path.


88 posted on 12/04/2005 11:36:25 AM PST by RightWhale (Not transferable -- Good only for this trip)
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To: Doctor Stochastic
Why is i sufficient?

Cuz solipsism be good enuf.

89 posted on 12/04/2005 12:00:28 PM PST by edsheppa
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To: bobdsmith
Does sqrt(-1) have two roots?

Sure, i and -i.

90 posted on 12/04/2005 12:06:01 PM PST by Doctor Stochastic (Vegetabilisch = chaotisch ist der Charakter der Modernen. - Friedrich Schlegel)
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To: RightWhale; Dawsonville_Doc; RadioAstronomer

I'm not sure I see the problem.
I do not require infinitely precise congruence to mathematical regular perfection to call a pattern a pattern.

In terms of the precession of the equinox, I shall defer to more knowledgeable FReepers. I will indulge in a spot of musing on it.

Seems to me that the precession involves the synchronization of at least the following two patterns: Earth's axial revolution and the relationship of Earth's axis to its orbital period.
Considering that Earth has a significantly massive satellite, rendering us a binary planetary system, I would think that the lunar orbit's mechanics would cause a significant effect on the synch of Earth's diurnal and orbital cycles. Earth's center of mass must describe a -hrmn- peculiar looking course around the orbital path of the combined binary system. This could be the cause (or one of them) of the "wobble"


91 posted on 12/04/2005 12:06:23 PM PST by King Prout (many accuse me of being overly literal... this would not be a problem if many were not under-precise)
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To: King Prout

Yep, my misprint. Analogous reasoning works though.


92 posted on 12/04/2005 12:06:42 PM PST by Doctor Stochastic (Vegetabilisch = chaotisch ist der Charakter der Modernen. - Friedrich Schlegel)
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To: js1138
"Doesn't work that way. You can't send information faster than light"

Ah, but this is where things get interesting... I'm no Quantum Physics expert, but if my reading on this topic is anywhere close to home... the reply is something like... "perhaps you can"

93 posted on 12/04/2005 12:09:29 PM PST by Lloyd227 (and may God bless Oriana Fallaci)
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To: King Prout
in any question-answer confrontation, if the querent asks "why?" enough times, the respondent will eventually be reduced to saying "because!"

Not necessarily. GR evidently allows time-like loops. IIRC Goedel had a (admittedly unlikely) model in which a causal universe arises from space-time region filled with them. On such a loop the sequence of causes loop back on themselves.

94 posted on 12/04/2005 12:10:29 PM PST by edsheppa
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To: edsheppa

*SMACK*

that's for making my brain hurt


95 posted on 12/04/2005 12:12:49 PM PST by King Prout (many accuse me of being overly literal... this would not be a problem if many were not under-precise)
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To: King Prout

I do not believe in that degree of earth wobble. Wobble is a first approximation of a more nearly perfect mathematical pattern. Copernicus' method could be applied to the rotation of the equinox: the sun itself need not be the center of rotation of the solar system. If Ptolemy had continued to observe in more detail, he would have had to account for effects of light and shadow, and that would have led him to Copernicus' take on revolution in the solar system. So it may be with precession of the equinox.


96 posted on 12/04/2005 12:13:25 PM PST by RightWhale (Not transferable -- Good only for this trip)
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To: Doctor Stochastic

just needed to clarify the given.

so, we have:

x^3 + 1 = 0
x = -1 is one solution.
(x^3 + 1)/(x + 1) = division by zero. foul.

yes?


97 posted on 12/04/2005 12:19:08 PM PST by King Prout (many accuse me of being overly literal... this would not be a problem if many were not under-precise)
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To: sourcery

all that matters is, can this be turned into a cool weapon?


98 posted on 12/04/2005 12:21:25 PM PST by isom35
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To: RightWhale

another possibility, to which I believe you allude, is that while the orbital and diurnal cycles do not synch on a year to year basis, they might (barring perturbation - itself cyclical OR one-shot random - from other sources outside the system under consideration) synch up over a much longer time interval, making an "uber-pattern".


99 posted on 12/04/2005 12:22:42 PM PST by King Prout (many accuse me of being overly literal... this would not be a problem if many were not under-precise)
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To: Doctor Stochastic

x^3 + 1 = 0
x = -1
x + 1 = 0
x^3 + 1 = x + 1

though I used to be rather good at it, it has been a long, LONG time since I did *any* algebra.
where to from here?


100 posted on 12/04/2005 12:30:55 PM PST by King Prout (many accuse me of being overly literal... this would not be a problem if many were not under-precise)
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