Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83 based; site houxf.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxj!houxm!houxf!1314jb From: 1314jb@houxf.UUCP (J.BOKOR) Newsgroups: net.physics Subject: Re: Re: why FTL is illegal (wrt: free will). Message-ID: <842@houxf.UUCP> Date: Fri, 4-Jan-85 23:03:25 EST Article-I.D.: houxf.842 Posted: Fri Jan 4 23:03:25 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 8-Jan-85 13:10:22 EST References: <683@gloria.UUCP> <785@ariel.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ Lines: 23 michael ellis writes: >Correct me if I'm mistaken, but I thought that even the simplest >Newtonian models of the universe result in intrinsically >INSOLUBLE differential equations (like the three-body problem). >Doesn't this mean that prediction is impossible, even in a >vanilla Newtonian universe with more than two objects? A so-called intrinsically INSOLUBLE differential equation has absolutely no relation to quantum mechanical uncertainty. The three-body problem in classical Newtonian theory has no known *analytical* exact solution, but this doesn't mean that 1) such a solution will never be found, or 2) that prediction is impossible. The solution may be obtained numerically to any arbitrary degree of accuracy given sufficient computing time, as implied by Guy Harris' article. The difference is that in quantum mechanics, you can't write down an equation for the coordinates of particles, you can only calculate a probability distribution function for each coordinate. The probabilistic nature of the theory is built into the assumptions used to construct the equations. Jeff Bokor