Re: Homeopathic Remedies for Royals?

Citizen Jimserac <Jimserac@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Your assertion that Quantum Mechanics has nothing to say about homeopathic medicine may be sufficient to reassure yourself in your quite understandable prejudice against it; considering your experiences with your father I probably would feel the same way.

My assertion that quantum mechanics has nothing to say about
homeopathic medicine comes from an understanding of quantum
mechanics and of the realities of homeopathic medicine, namely
that it utilises samples of distilled water differentiated only
by their labels and which are sold to the gullible by con
merchants.

You might argue that quantum mechanics can tell us many things
about homeopathic medicines because they are all simply distilled
water and quantum mechanics can tell us many things about water
molecules eg http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1932PhRv...42..189C
and indeed about the structure of its constituent atoms eg this
http://www.pha.jhu.edu/~rt19/hydro/hydro.html on hydrogen atoms.
But when it comes to the practise of homeopathic medicine - that
is, the conning of little old ladies into believing that a dose of
distilled water (suitably labelled of course) will cure their ills,
quantum mechanics has nothing whatsoever to say.

The most useful scientific tool with which to examine homeopathy
is known as Avogadro's constant

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avogadro_constant

This allows us to determine how many molecules of a substance
will be present in solutions of different dilutions. Homeopaths
typically use solutions in water diluted to 30C, that is one part
of substance to 100-to-the-power-30 parts water (that's 1 followed
by 60 zeros). A simple calculation using Avogadros constant tells
us that the maximum possible dilution is 12C because any dilution
greater than that cannot have any molecules of the substance
present. So a 30C solution is just water - it can quench our thirst
or drown us, but it cannot cure us of anything.

--
Brian Pears
Gateshead, UK
.

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