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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!alice!jj
From: jj@alice.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.analog
Subject: Humpt!  Darkness again.
Message-ID: <3170@alice.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 14-Dec-84 12:29:20 EST
Article-I.D.: alice.3170
Posted: Fri Dec 14 12:29:20 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 15-Dec-84 02:30:58 EST
Organization: New Jersey State Farm for the Terminally Bewildered
Lines: 31


>From allegra!ulysses!burl!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!mcnc!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!harvard!wjh12!foxvax1!brunix!lems!ltn Wed Dec 31 19:00:00 1969


>In article  jj@alice.UUCP writes:
>>...
>>I hereby propose that the threshold of "darkness" is calculated
>>in the following manner:
>>
>>Consider a spherical shell, of interior radius 1 meter, with the
>>interior of the shell representing a perfect black body.  Consider
>>that that shell is at exactly 373 degrees K. Measure, with a
>>probe that has no effect on the EM radiation, ...
>>
>Sorry.  Ever hear of quantum mechanics?  There is no such thing as a probe
>that has no effect on the thing being measured.
>
>-les niles

Yeah, well, Les, maybe I DO understand that.  The POINT is  that I was trying to
provide a a defination
that can be THEORETICALLY calculated, Les.  You don't NEED a "perfect
probe" because you can, and MUST, calculate the flux in question from
first principles.  What's that got to do with quantum mechanics?    (Other
than the obvious uses of quantum mechanics in the calculations, that is.)

Measurement of an actual space clearly is less easy, but still within the reach of
a good photon counter, I think.  Also, given a "normal" space, I think
that the effects of absorbing the photons in your very small pickup space
will be easily calculated and minor.