X-Message-Number: 8295
From: 
Date: Sun, 8 Jun 1997 17:10:31 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: questions

A quick comment-question or two about action-at-a-distance and quantum
mechanics:

First, Feinberg and others have suggested that faster-than-light signals may
indeed be possible through tachyons, although the possible paradoxes have not
been dealt with satisfactorily, as far as I know.

Second, what about Mach and centripetal force? Supposedly, a rotating body
would not exhibit this effect in the absence of the distant stars, which
provide a reference frame for the rotation. How does this become a local
effect?

Third, has anyone read Lazar Mayants' book BEYOND THE QUANTUM PARADOX (Taylor
& Francis, London, 1994)? He has some interesting notions. One which occurred
to me a long time ago concerns Heisenberg uncertainty and free particles. (A
system at rest or unaccelerated with respect to another system has no
uncertainty in its momentum, it would seem.)  He thinks some of the quantum
rules are statistical only, not applying to actual individual particles. He
also thinks photons have non-zero (although very small) rest mass, and
provides his reasons. If any substantial part of his reasoning is correct,
much of what most physicists think about quantum mechanics is wrong. And many
of his ideas are testable. Anybody familiar with this?

Robert Ettinger

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=8295