Here We Go Again
Wednesday, December 22, 2010 at 05:28PM
Doug

Last month, I got up in the morning with the intent to write more about how nature can be both continuous and discrete at the same time. I had intended on announcing the next logical step in the development of the new number line, which I have been explaining in the new math blog.

However, I began browsing the web before actually settling down to compose the entry, which is never a good thing to do, from a productivity standpoint, because it inevitably leads to some kind of diversion or another. This time was no exception. I found out that FQXI has announced a new contest.

It turns out that their foundational question for the new contest evokes the very subject of my intended entry : “Is Reality Digital or Analog?”

I think I will submit an entry entitled, “What is the Point of Reality?” In it, I will try to show how the definition of a physical point is at the root of most trouble with physics. From the impossible concept of the electron, to the enigma of the black hole theory, to the break-down of equations in the big bang, the challenge of coping with x0 = 1 and the 21/2, the incompatibility of the discrete and continuous, which nature integrates seamlessly, continues to plague mankind.

Wish me luck. I’ll need it!

 

Article originally appeared on LRC (http://www.lrcphysics.com/).
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