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  1. Naked Science Forum
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  4. Is the dice experiment modelling radioactive decay inaccurate?
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Is the dice experiment modelling radioactive decay inaccurate?

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Offline puppypower (OP)

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Is the dice experiment modelling radioactive decay inaccurate?
« on: 01/03/2018 11:55:45 »
The main problem with the experiment is, a six sided die is equally weighed on all sides.The difference between the sides of dice, is not weight, potential energy, or entropy. Rather it is a manmade convention based on dots; visual cues.  This is not how nature works, this is how manmade things work. The goal of the factory is for all the widgets to be the same. Nature tends toward the same with some variety since all the weights are not the same.

If you look at the energy levels of a hydrogen atom, with each energy level analogous to the sides of a die, each side has a different weight. It is not based on a human convention where all sides are assumed to be equally likely since each appears as a line on a graph. The dice assumption may have come about before science tools were very accurate. Dice have been dated back to about 6000BC, so the lack of accurate tool assumption is very reasonable. The dice were made equal weight on all sides, so the "game" would be fair for all. This choice was made, so it would be up the gods, who shall win, instead of man rigging the system. Dice is based on a religious POV of nature, and not a science one.

I cannot think of any situations in nature where manmade dice is the case, except maybe stereo-isomers. Stereoisomers are like the two sides to a manmade coin.  This can be observed in chemical reactions. A stereoisomer has the same weight and composition of atoms, but differs in how these are arranged in 3-D space. They appear to be different based on a visual cue. If you dig deeper, even stereoisomers are not equal in weight, as evident by life preferring the left handed stereoisomers. Life will flip the stereoisomer coin, which appears regulation, and knows how to get heads all the time. How can life defy the odds all the time? Cells are not allowed to gamble in casinos. Natural dice are loaded, at some subtle level, and statistics is a manmade simplification tool and not a fact of nature.

What appears to have happened is many people, even in science, have assumed the rules of the game of dice are a reflection of natural. This unconsciously assumes that dice originally appeared as a revelation from a natural god, 8000 years ago, and are not manmade. This is an example of religion still in science. We may need to place limits on the use of this science oracle, based on an ancient god, since this can cause the mind to lose track of reason. This is not meant as a taboo, but more for good mental health.
« Last Edit: 03/03/2018 15:53:35 by chris »
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Offline Bored chemist

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Re: Is the dice experiment modelling radioactive decay inaccurate?
« Reply #1 on: 01/03/2018 12:29:12 »
Quote from: puppypower on 01/03/2018 11:55:45
Nature tends toward the same with some variety since all the weights are not the same.
Balderdash.
All 235 uranium atoms are identical- far more so than the best made dice.
Quote from: puppypower on 01/03/2018 11:55:45
Dice is based on a religious POV of nature, and not a science one.
Also balderdash.
Quote from: puppypower on 01/03/2018 11:55:45
Stereoisomers are like the two sides to a manmade coin.
Not really, it's usually very obvious which side is heads and which side is tails. That's not the same as stereo-isomers.

A better analogy would be lego models of things made from the same st of bricks.

It's not clear what you mean by this
"I cannot think of any situations in nature where manmade dice is the case, except maybe stereo-isomers. "
would you like to clarify it?
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Offline RichardNaiff

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Is the dice experiment modelling radioactive decay inaccurate
« Reply #2 on: 23/08/2018 01:20:05 »
I know for a fact that Madonna didnt actually do the voice, it sounded a lot like Frank Welker can anyone confirm this?
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