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Infinite number of Universes and winning the lottery.

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Rev. Green | 16:37 Mon 27th Jul 2009 | Science
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People often say things like "If the number of Universes is infinite, there must be some where I've won the lottery".

Can someone with a good understanding of Aleph-null, Aleph-one, etc. tell me if this is correct? I suspect that it isn't. The number of positions for this pencil is infinite. Perhaps all the other Universes are just like ours with the pencil in different positions - and I've won ziltch on the lottery in all of them.
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I don't think cantorian concepts of various infinities are really helpful here Rev! Principly this is because we are considering an "interpretation" of quantum theory. Quantum theory gives us an excellent way of predicting the probability of an outcome but doesn't really give us an explanation of the "mechanics" of what causes that outcome. Quantum...
08:53 Tue 28th Jul 2009
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People often say things like "If the number of Universes is infinite, there must be some where I've won the lottery".
________________________________

do they?

i think i'm knocking round with the wrong people, the people i hang out with are more likely to say things like 'phwoar look at the rack on that'.
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Don't let "Rev. Green" fool you. It only means I played Cluedo and didn't fancy being "Miss Scarlet"!
I am Miss Scarlett ;o)
OMG, are we in science?!!
Quick, Run Sara before you get stuck in here!
Back to science (err ...possibly) ........No.Knowledge, I have to ask - what's a rack?
it's okay, Chuck, I've found a precision nuclear laser cutting gadget that will get me out of anywhere.

they leave strange stuff lying around in science.
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naomi, that really isn't a scientific question!
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that was quite a fine example of a rack!
No? I was guessing it might have something to do with biology, Sara.
Ahh, thanks for that. Never heard the term before, but now I know.
hey, Naomi has learnt something new ;o)

yes Zac.. anything, really!
Every day some people inform me via email that I stand to collect multiple millions of US dollars without even having bought a ticket :�)
wow how lucky is that wildwood, congratulations
Interesting topic. Pity there aren't any sensible replies.
I don't think cantorian concepts of various infinities are really helpful here Rev!

Principly this is because we are considering an "interpretation" of quantum theory.

Quantum theory gives us an excellent way of predicting the probability of an outcome but doesn't really give us an explanation of the "mechanics" of what causes that outcome.

Quantum theory interpretations attempt to do this and the "Many worlds" interpretation is just one of many. All are mathematically consistant and none provides any way of testing whether it is correct or not.

So IMHO all are equally useless (but then I come from an experimental background)

However let's indulge the theorists.

The idea is that a universe splits whenever there are multiple outcomes of a quantum event. So we need to consider whether that just means that all universes are exactly alike with only differences at the microscopic level or whether these quantum events can influence macroscopic events like which lottery balls fall oout.

For this we need to consider non-linear dynamics or Chaos theory to it's mates.

Certain systems show very great sesitivity to intial starting conditions. The double pendulum is the classic example
http://www.met.rdg.ac.uk/~ross/Documents/Schoo lTalkDP.html

in this animation there is only a tiny difference in the initial speed and rapidly the motion becomes very different.
Indeed to predict the outcome of this or the lottery machines you would need to know the starting conditions with infinite accuracy.

ctd.

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