[extropy-chat] still no biscuit!

[Jeff Medina]

On Wed, 19 Jan 2005 15:27:27 -0600, Damien Broderick
<thespike at satx.rr.com> wrote:
> At 03:24 PM 1/19/2005 -0500, Eliezer wrote:
> 
> >the hypothesis of conservation of momentum is not that momentum is
> >conserved 90% of the time or even 99.9999% of the time.  The hypothesis of
> >conservation of momentum is that momentum is conserved 100.00000% of the
> >time.  We may be uncertain, but the hypothesis of "conservation of
> >momentum" hypothesizes a state of affairs in which reality is *not*
> >uncertain; a reality in which it is *absolutely certain* that momentum
> >will be conserved on each and every occasion.
> 
> It's true that physicists thought so 100 years ago. Then they found that
> with the conjugate properties position and momentum, 100% accuracy in
> measuring position meant momentum went all over the ship. Bugger, eh?

Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle does not conflict with conservation
of momentum. It is a limit on measurement capabilities, not an
indicator that momentum goes "all over the ship" when position is
measured.