Why couldn't quantum mechanics be like thermodynamics - a statistical approximation of a more fundamental deterministic theory?
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MvL
ANSWERS: 2
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Then you wouldn't get interference. Actually, think thru the question some more. What does "deterministic" mean to you, and why do you think QM isn't?
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I just added a long comment, it vanished, boo hoo. Let's leave it at "expose them as being something else" I have something deep to say, it comes from a slightly different direction. Let's find a generalization that includes both particles and waves. We think of a particle as having one specific position, and no other. A wave is a mapping from x-location to density. So is a particle! (a spike function, 0 everywhere except where the particle is) Did you know that the set of all functions is a vector space? And sine waves is one basis; and spike functions is another basis. So you can define any function as a sum (superposition) of spike functions, or as a sum of sine waves (Fourier transform). Do you see where I am going with this? A measurement is a change of basis. It's an interaction with a massive thing that might be particle-shaped or wave-shaped (or some intermediate combination). It asks: Which spike are you? Or: Which wave are you? And if the particle isn't that shape, it changes shape to fit the question.
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