virtual particles: an effront on empiricism?

[gib65]

Virtual particles are particles that exist for such a short period of time that they can't be observed. If this is true, then wouldn't this defy one of the criteria of science, namely empiricism?

[swansont]

Virtual particles are particles that exist for such a short period of time that they can't be observed. If this is true, then wouldn't this defy one of the criteria of science, namely empiricism?

 

 

You test the predictions made by the model.

[gib65]

Hm. What kind of predictions does virtual particles make? How have they been tested?

[swansont]

Hm. What kind of predictions does virtual particles make? How have they been tested?

 

If memory serves, Feynman diagrams use them all over the place, and they've worked out pretty well.

[[Tycho?]]

Yeah they helped with that casimir effect, not sure if the spelling is right. The attraction of two conducting plates when extremely close together.

[gib65]

I'll take your words for it, since I have no idea what those things are.

[nomadd22]

They can become real and be seen if you seperate them before they collapse back into nothing. All you need is a gravitational field that varies so much over such a short distance that they're seperated before they can recombine. Near a small black hole, for instance. One particle falls into the hole and one escapes. Of course to pay for creating that particle out of nothing, the black hole has to give up some mass.

I think I'll call it Hawking radiation.

[Mokele]

Tangentially, one of these days I'll get my sister to record her "particle physics rant". It's all about the nutty stuff that goes on and how things get modified post-hoc to conform to experiments that screw the theory, and stuff physics just pulls out of it's butt. It's actually really funny, and I've suggested she become the world's first stand-up physicist. Of course, most of it is over my head, but she explains it well enough to show how it's funny and/or ridiculous.

 

Mokele

[gib65]

You should ask her to post it here, in this thread.

[swansont]

Tangentially' date=' one of these days I'll get my sister to record her "particle physics rant". It's all about the nutty stuff that goes on and how things get modified post-hoc to conform to experiments that screw the theory, and stuff physics just pulls out of it's butt. It's actually really funny, and I've suggested she become the world's first stand-up physicist. Of course, most of it is over my head, but she explains it well enough to show how it's funny and/or ridiculous.

 

Mokele[/quote']

 

From my limited understanding of the standard model, there are a lot of terms that are fixed by experiment rather than by theory. And there are a lot of things that, at first glance, seem pretty outrageous. Like "this goes to infinity, so we'll ignore it."