Was Zeno the First Theoretical(quantum) Physicist?
  • AKTwitchen
    4
    So Zeno's paradox discusses the arrow than when observed/measured is in one spot and not moving.

    When a particle is spinning Schrodinger says we have to consider it spinning in both directions until we observe and measure it and find out whether it is spinning left or right etc.

    From what I can tell Zeno was already starting to break into the world of the quantum even without knowing Einstein's theory of relativity or Isaac Newton's theory of gravity. I feel Schrodinger is just expressing the observed to the unobserved with relation to the arrow and a radioactive particle in the manner of the technology available at the time. The arrow is both moving and not moving, the cat is both dead and alive.

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    AKTwitchen Options
  • SophistiCat
    2.2k
    No.
    SophistiCat Options
  • DingoJones
    2.8k
    ↪AKTwitchen


    I dont think so. Zeno was making entirely different points with what you are referencing. He did not have anything like the quantum level in mind, but rather logic.
    I think you are reading into Zeno too much to draw that conclusion, and resemblance to quantum mechanics is superficial and coincidental.
    DingoJones Options
  • PuerAzaelis
    55
    There are many categories of indeterminacy. One of them is epistemological the other is physical.
    PuerAzaelis Options
  • AKTwitchen
    4
    ↪SophistiCat
    that's not very sophisticated.
    AKTwitchen Options
  • ssu
    8k
    ↪DingoJones

    :up:

    I would assume that what Zeno had in mind were things like the problem of the infinitesimal.

    (Too bad we don't have his book around anymore.)
    ssu Options
  • deletedusercbAccepted Answer
    1.7k
    Just thought I would throw in that we have the Quantum Zeno effect now...
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Zeno_effect

    and this is actually used by birds in navigation, so it is not just restricted to the particle world...
    The quantum Zeno effect is used in commercial atomic magnetometers and naturally by birds' magnetic compass sensory mechanism (magnetoreception).[37]
    from the article.
    deletedusercb Options
  • Malice
    45
    I believe calculus also solves this problem.
    Malice Options
  • Benkei
    7.1k
    ↪DingoJones
    I'm under the impression his paradoxes were about mathematics.
    Benkei Options
  • DingoJones
    2.8k
    ↪Benkei


    Im under the impression they are about logical paradoxes. Connecting them to mathematics is an extrapolation imo.
    DingoJones Options
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