We were discussing quantum mechanics over lunch ( Read more... )

One of the commenters to the previous post suggested that the surest way of making the world a better place is for all men to stop missing the urinal in men's restrooms. As is the usual thing with such ideas, this specific program of improving the sublunar world puts the whole burden on men, including the very young, the dizzy, the myopic, the old ( Read more... )

My original plan was to furnish the "proof" of electron's existence in Leibniz' sense; i.e. to demonstrate that the electron satisfies the requirement for maximal compatibility and hence exists. It was supposed to follow the plan of Plato's Republic. Socrates was unable to prove that justice is better than injustice for any given individual, but he ( Read more... )

Do electrons exist as material objects? Are electrons nothing more than theoretical constructs helping to interpret the results of experiments ( Read more... )

I confess that I do not know the solution to this puzzle. Dr. Who got himself in a bloody mess ( Read more... )

Solving this puzzle requires excluding the impossible and embracing the improbable. I've suggested it to quite a few people, and typically one hears one absurd scenario after another (frictional heating at the maximum speed at perihelion, activation of isotopes by solar wind, and what not). People would go to the extremes only to avoid facing the ( Read more... )

Puzzle 9 (Physics)
Mathematician Owas does not believe that electrons exist. He argues that objects that are neither countable nor uncountable cannot exist. He will believe in the existence of the electron if and only if he will be shown that the electrons form a countable set or demonstrated otherwise.

Do electrons exist?

Puzzle 10 (Philosophy) ( Read more... )

The duplication machine duplicates any object placed inside it, atom for atom, particle for particle. Dr. Who wants to duplicate himself but he wants to know which one is the original Dr. Who. The machine is a black box: he has no knowledge of its operation. Both objects emerge from the machine simultaneosuly and in random order.How can Dr. Who ( Read more... )

An asteriod in an eccentric orbit around the Sun is solid at perihelion (the closest point) and liquid at aphelion (the furthest point).

How is this possible?

The curious thing about plant photosynthesis is that it is a misnomer. A century ago when people introduced this term, they believed that light directly made new chemicals. This turned out to be incorrect. The photon induces charge separation in Photosystem II and the electron is converted into the gradient of protons across the thylakoid membrane ( Read more... )