Russell Standish wrote: > >Also note that exact measurements of microstates is *in principle* >incompatible with the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.
Well, that's why I defined microstates as "detailed descriptions of the positions and momenta of all the particles, within the limits of the uncertainty principle". My memory is that in the quantum version of statistical mechanics, the phase space is partititioned into finite regions so that the uncertainty principle does not prevent you from measuring which region the system is in (and the regions are made as small as possible while still having that be true). I wonder if there'd be a natural way to look at statistical mechanics in the MWI interpretation though--I would think the maximal information about a system, analogous to the "microstate", would be the system's exact quantum state (which only assigns amplitudes to different values of noncommuting variables like position and momentum), and the evolution of the system's quantum state over time should be completely deterministic, and also "information-preserving" in the sense that knowing the quantum state at a later time would tell you the quantum state at an earlier time. But I can't think what "macrostates" you'd use, since a particular quantum state can involve a superposition of different possible temperatures, pressures and so forth. Jesse --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
