h a l f b a k e r yFewer ducks than estimates indicate.
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A keyring which contains a concealed drive (electric or clockwork), and a random timing device which triggers the drive to slowly rotate a mass.
The above system means that the momentum of the keyring is unknown (at any moment it may or may not contain a rotating mass).
Therefore, one has a better
chance of knowing the location of the keyring.
With thanks to XKCD.
Third strip of four.
http://www.xkcd.com/824/
[jutta, Nov 25 2010]
[link]
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... because you have more information, when you have less data... |
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Yeah, I worry about that, too---but it's not the same as Bill Amend's guest strip, it's really taking the opposite direction in the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.
(I like Amend's version better because it doesn't require mistaking knowability for knowledge, it's purely a quantum/Newtonian world joke. But in a relativistic universe, YMMV.) |
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If the rotating mass were actually a wheel rotating at a constant rate, then its momentum would be known precisely but its location would be smeared out, and eventually you would find it underfoot. |
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//in a relativistic universe, YMMV// |
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