@Slereah whoa think not many adhere to "many world", apparently distinct minority. it would be interesting to see a survey somewhere. how can you say copenhagen is not majority? find that difficult to believe unless there is some other option like "dont care/ doesnt matter" (and then one immediately wonders how that would be different than copenhagen!)...
@DanielSank some further thoughts. seem to have inadvertently stumbled into an ongoing debate in here about theoretical vs applied science, etc. ... think you have unique pov & many excellent points & would urge you to develop them further, eg into a blog (on google!). have personally long observed/ thought about science, capitalism, & the intersection of the two. we dont have the same sentiments exactly but agree they are subjects/ areas of vital or even critical importance.
DS contd. an interesting case study that was thinking of is Kary Mullis, inventor of PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) technology, pivotal in DNA sequencing, his story is very informative/ relevant. he wrote a book called "dancing through the mind field".
DS contd. another case study is nobel prizes which are often split 2-3 ways, diminishing their monetary value, and tend to be awarded later in life these days. this was the case with Bardeen (who was cited earlier). so, big monetary reward/ payoff for practicing science, not exactly. ofc Nobel prizes while highly prestigious are like winning the scientific lottery...
@Slereah thx for that hadnt heard of it will check it out!
@Slereah have to run soon but [now donning flameproof suit here] what do you think of bohm? we had some knockdown dragout "conversations" on it in this chat room in past.
I mean, when I lived on the east coast the point -> challenge thing was the foundation of social interaction, but when I moved out west I found it made people uncomfortable.
Folks here prefer a more agreeable response. The "challenge" phase has to be done in a very peculiar way: "Yes, I see what you mean. Also..." instead of "That's clearly wrong and here's why...".
I have been repeatedly asked variants of "Why do you guys hate each other?" after someone witnessed me debating something with a certain friend. Apparently, what is a perfectly fine discussion in our mind sounds like a vicious fight to others :D
@KyleKanos You're reminding me of a quote: "Tell someone today you love them, because life is short. But shout it at them in German, because life is also terrifying"
@0celo7 I'm not sure whether it's homework because I don't really understand what the question is about. Did you understand the question without looking up the actual exercise in Wald?
Ah, I understand it now because I saw the intended paragraphs when I went to edit it...it always amazes me how many people use simple line breaks in there and apparently never notice that their posts don't show these line breaks :P
Part (b) of the exercise is trivial because you find that $\alpha$ is proportional to $\mathrm{d}^2t'/\mathrm{d}t^2$, so for $\alpha$ to vanish the parameters have to be linearly related.
