Theos-Talk Archives (August 2002 Message tt00248)

Robert L. Park writes:

"General relativity, however, is a classical continuum theory, which 
conceives of the universe as a seamless whole; and therein must lie 
the source of its incompatibility with quantum mechanics, which sees 
the universe as made up of discrete bits. But so far, there is no 
generally accepted quantum theory of gravity, though some theorists 
believe they are close." 
[Quoted from: http://muse.doshisha.ac.jp/jugyo/02/es213/13.doc ]

COMPARE this with an excerpt from a recent contribution on this forum:

"General relativity is a classical continuum theory, which conceives 
of the universe as a seamless whole. Therein must lie the source of 
its incompatibility with quantum mechanics. So far, in spite of many 
attempts, there is no generally accepted quantum theory of 
gravity."

Again Robert L. Park writes:

"It is a wonderful irony that when Einstein published his general 
theory of relativity in 1916, many of the effects it predicted seemed 
so slight that some physicists despaired of laboratory confirmation. 
Confirmation of general relativity became possible, almost routine, 
through the technologies ushered in by the quantum revolution. . . . 
Moreover, the timing signals themselves must be accurate to one 
second in 100,000 years. Such accuracy would be inconceivable without 
the atomic clock, an invention that sprang from quantum mechanics: 
The atomic clock is regulated by the frequency of microwaves that 
correspond to a quantum transition of an atom."

Compare to the same recent posting:

"When Einstein published his general theory of relativity in 1916, 
its predictions on a laboratory scale differed so little from 
Newtonian mechanics that some physicists despaired of laboratory 
confirmation;it seemed impossible to make measurements with 
sufficient precision. It is a wonderfal irony that confirmation 
became possible, almost routine, through technologies ushered in by 
the quantum revolution-the atomic clock, for example, which is 
accurate to one second in a hundred thousand years. 1hc atomic clock 
is regulated by the frequency of microwaves emitted during quantum 
transitions of cesium atoms. . . ."

Are these paranormal happenings or what?

Daniel