Re: Layman ruminations on quantum mechanics


Ross A. Finlayson wrote:
> PD wrote:
> > Ross A. Finlayson wrote:
> > > Is HUP inapplicable to photons? Emit the photon and detect it, the
> > > photon only travels at c so the straight line from the emitter to the
> > > detection indicates its momentum, and the detection indicates its
> > > position.
> >
> > Since you asked about three dozen questions and presented about two
> > dozen half-baked ideas, I'll address one to start.
> >
> > Yes, the HUP applies to photons. Note the HUP doesn't restrict whether
> > a measurement can be made at all, but the inherent *precision* of the
> > measurement (governed by physics and not by instrumentation).
> >
> > Thus you can measure the momentum and position of a photon but not both
> > with arbitrarily high precision.
> >
> > PD
>
> I'm just happy I got somebody rational to reply.
>
> About that, it seems that because light speed is strictly c, that if
> the observers at emitter and collector both know the synchronized time
> of the photon emission, that its position and momentum is readily
> determined, because, it's the only particle that could have done that,
> reached the collector, and, it did.

Indeed, the procedure for synchronizing clocks is classical and works
only in the realm where quantum effects are small. We know that
already. This, however, does not mean that spacetime and manifest
covariance of physical laws does not pertain to quantum mechanics.

PD

.

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