Aduke.2116 net.misc utzoo!decvax!duke!cjp Wed May 5 04:21:09 1982 Wave functions and psi similar? I can think about Alpha Centauri right now, picture it in my mind, without having to wait for light to get here from there. Is this psi? Clearly not. What I picture in my mind has no bearing on what is happening right now at A. Centuri; it can only reflect the information that has come from there at a speed no greater than c. I think the wave function description of a particle is similar in some ways to my description of Alpha Centauri. Not only is the wave function not physically restricted, it is an incomplete description of the particle. It is equivalent in power to my assumption that A. C. is the same now as it was when the light I see from it was emitted; it is saying "if the center of the probability distribution of the electron's location is at X, then *ignoring time*, what is the probability of seeing the electron at Y". I think my disagreement with Don boils down to whether a wave function is constrained by the speed of light. As I understand it, the wave function uses no notion of time, but only distance. I view it as a mathematical abstraction merely. It does not say the particle is everywhere "at the same time", because it says nothing about time at all. Time is totally left out. So you can't use wave functions to speak about *when* some observation happens, only about *whether* (i.e., with what probability) and where it happens. Say, would someone who really knows about this stuff please shut me up? Charles Poirier (duke!cjp) ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.