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vertbhrtn

63 karma · joined June 30, 2020

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vertbhrtn··on Which firms profit most from America’s health-care system (2018)
I'd argue it's unfixable for low income workers. Excessive sugar in all the cheap food is a trap they can't avoid. They don't have money to buy better food and don't have time to shop and cook for themselves. That's assuming they recognize this problem at all.
vertbhrtn··on Why do electron shells have set limits? (1999)
My understanding of QM is very naive, but Schrodinger equation seems really simple to me. I could probably even explain it to a 5 year old. I'd show a few pictures of standing waves on a drum surface: the first two energy levels create simple shapes, higher levels create more sophisticated shapes. Then I'd say that an electron is such a wave. Then I'd introduce the idea of electric potential: I'd put a heavy thing in the center and say that this is how the atom's nucleus warps the electric field; and this changes the wave patterns somewhat, but the idea remains the same. Then I'd say that often multiple standing waves mix together and we get a quasipattern that oscillates between a few standing waves. That's really it.
vertbhrtn··on Why do electron shells have set limits? (1999)
Is the accurate model that complex, though? An electron is a standing wave: one could show the first two standing waves on a drum and say these are the lowest two electron energy levels. Higher levels create more sophisticated waves, and non-flat potential adds more complexity, but the idea remains the same.
vertbhrtn··on Why do electron shells have set limits? (1999)
I've seen a clever way to derive QM out of GR equations by making a single assumption: ds2exp(Cexp(-iwt)) = c2*dt2 - dx2 - dy2 - dz2. This extra exp() factor modulates the ds2 slightly, and when mixed with GR equations, it makes the time-dependent Schrodinger equation. Whether this math corresponds to any physics is a question, but if this idea is right, then the psi-function isn't some abstract "probabilities cloud", but rather a standing wave on top of the spacetime field governed by the GR equations.
vertbhrtn··on 3D Electron Orbitals of Hydrogen
What if something else chosen as an initial condition, like a sphere or some random shape? Would it converge to something meaningful if we apply the time-dependent SE with a meaningful field potential?
vertbhrtn··on 3D Electron Orbitals of Hydrogen
Would it really just jump into another shape? I don't understand QM much, but the Schrodinger equation looks like a typical heat equation (with some complex-number trickery) and thus in general should evolve smoothly. There should be a transition period between two shapes.
vertbhrtn··on 3D Electron Orbitals of Hydrogen
Is there a way to make these shapes evolve with time?
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