Re: On Determinism

Peter Ashby wrote:
<alex.j.k@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

That Brownian motion could be interpreted as perfectly consistent
with deterministic Newtonian mechanics -and indeed it is usually
formulated that way-- does _not_ imply that the motion of molecules is
in fact deterministic - we know that Newtonian physics is just an
approximation of the real world. It is only so far that one can go with
the explanation of the movement of molecules as movements of billiard
balls.
It is certainly _not_ correct to claim that because of this
possible Newtonian interpretation, the motion of molecules is
deterministic.

Okay then, please explain the role of non Newtonian physics in the
motion of molecules. I know that relativity for eg is required to fully
explain the orbit of mercury but I am not aware of such a discrepancy in
the motion of molecules. Pray enlighten me.


???

A quick google search reveals:

http://www.weizmann.ac.il/chemphys/tannor/highlights.html
"Prof. David Tannor is a theoretical chemist, who studies quantum
mechanics effects on the motion of molecules."

So much for the claim that the motion of molecules is determinate,
just because you can use classical models to --imperfectly-- model such
motion.

Cheers,
Alex

.

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