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Transportation (mander.xyz)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Supposedly, in a classic episode of Doctor Who, the Doctor calculated that there was a non-zero chance for all of the molecules in a rubber ball to align with all of the molecules in a wall in such a way as to allow the ball to pass through the wall. He then spent some time bouncing the ball off of said wall to test the theory. Perhaps something similar could be a backup plan for the guy in this comic.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 6 months ago (1 children)

There's a higher non-zero change for the ball to undergo a spontaneous nuclear explosion.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I never saw the episode myself, but I suspect that is not what happened in the episode.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

IIRC, they were released from their imprisonment before the hypothesis could be fully tested. But I haven’t seen the episode in a very, very long time.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (2 children)

How is that possible? The ball is interacting with its own atoms via the electromagnetic field, right? Providing enough of a repellant force so it doesn't phase through itself. Why would the wall be any different?

I thought this kind of thing was quantum tunneling.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Generally speaking, I would say that Doctor Who is more about whimsy than fact.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

SCIENTIFIC whimsy!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Though quantum mechanics come awfully damn close to "wibbly wobbly, timey wimey."

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

As the Doctor said, the chance wasn’t zero. In infinite quantum realities, it might happen. Eventually.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

New Who would let it actually happen when nobody was looking... then have the Doctor lament that without the ball, he's just bored.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

In a later scene, the companion would ask about the ball, and the Doctor would make an off-hand quip about it actually having passed through the wall, but they don’t believe it.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

that indeed is quantum tunneling