Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2003 14:18:58 -0500
Subject: Re: (urth) Father Inire's Mirrors and Wolfe Physics
From: Michael Buice 


On Tuesday, August 19, 2003, at 02:04  PM, Tony Martinez wrote:

> FWIW, I thought the explanation reminiscent of the EPR
> (Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen) paradox, which is, as you say, an aspect of
> QM (and a very interesting one, linked to the idea of FTL
> communication); don't know how it connects to tunneling, though.

It doesn't connect.  EPR has to do with Entanglement, which is unique 
to the mathematical structure of QM.  Tunneling is another aspect of 
wave mechanics which happens to carry over to the QM world.  If you 
shine light through a prism such that total internal reflection 
prevents the light from escaping the other side of the prism, you can 
still "pull it out", if you will, by holding another prism close to the 
first.  The light wave will propagate "over" the gap between prisms and 
continue propagation in the nearby prism, never propagating in the 
space between.  Since QM forces wave-like behavior on matter, it must 
be able to do this as well.  That's what "Quantum" Tunneling is.

Michael


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