Re: Repeatability, scientific method, and probabilistic results

Tim Golden wrote: 
Is there a conflict with probabilistic models and the scientific
method?

Whereas a simple experiment allows for errors in the equipment and
allows for probabilistic correction, quantum physics imposes these
methods on the non-instrumantal portion of the experiment.

Repeatability is a tenet of the scientific method.
Some will argue that the quantum experiments are repeatable.
The type of repeatability is starkly different from earlier work.
The electron did not suffer in Millikan's work from this quantum
repeatability issue even though it is quantized. Likewise the spectrum
of atomic radiation does not suffer. Only the new quantum physics with
wavefunctions needs a new type of repeatability.

Where do you stand?

-Tim 

I'll add this to other replies.  You stay out of trouble if you
rephrase things a bit.  View a quantum observation as an observation
of how a particle emitter behaves instead of assuming you are
observing the state of the particle it emits.  Then the repeatibility
is straight-forward.  Just emit another particle.

Your point about probabilistic corrections due to imprecise measurement
is of a different nature from the probabilities in quantum theory.
Compare them rather with the probabilities associated with say a
thermodynamic system, e.g. the probability distribution for the
velocities of a particle being detected within a bottle of thin gas.
You repeat that experiment by "putting the particle back" so the number
hasn't changed and then making sure the thermodynamic quantities e.g.
temperature & pressure, are the same as before.

Regards,
James Baugh

.

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