Fri, 15 Aug 2003
How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?
Anders Sandberg adopts a systematic approach to the problem in
terms of quantum gravity:
The basic issue is the maximal density of active angels in a
small volume. It should be noted that the original formulation
of the problem did not refer to the head of a pin (R¼1 mm) but
to the point of the pin. Therefore, the point, not the head,
of the pin is the region that will be studied in this paper.
One of the first reported attempts at a quantum gravity
treatment of the angel density problem that also included the
correct end of the pin was made by Dr. Phil Schewe. He
suggested that due to quantum gravity space is likely not
infinitely divisible beyond the Planck length scale of
10exp-35 meters. Hence, assuming the point of the pin to be
one Ångström across (the size of a scanning tunnelling
microscope tip) this would produce a maximal number of angels
on the order of 1050 since they would not have more places to
fill.[1]
While this approach does produce an upper bound on the
possible density of angels, it is based on the Thomist
assumption of non-overlap.
And so on.
[ Link ]
[ Discuss theology ]
posted at: 17:24 | path: /weird | permanent link to this entry
Slowdown
It's turned hot again around here. Added to which, I was at
the pub until about three in the morning on account of having
finished my first (of two edit passes) through the novel I've
got to hand in next week. The second pass is basically fine
tuning on the ending, and should take a couple of days --
probably at the weekend -- so I'm taking today off work.
Hence, no work to avoid, hence, no masses of blog updates.
posted at: 16:47 | path: /misc | permanent link to this entry
|