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Variant, v. 1, issue 2, whole no. 2, May 1947
Page 17
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May 1947 VARIANT Page 17 Bud Waldo has been suffering recently from grippe, sore throat, and so on. The other night a few of the boys paid his a visit and cheered him a little. He looks pale and thin -- bet his weight has gone down to 229. (Ed.'s note: Since this has been writer, we are glad to say, Bud has recovered -- from the grippe, we mean.) Have you read Pat Frank's Mr. Adam yet? If you didn't, you have missed a lot of good laughs. It is just about the only atomic bomb story that doesn't fill you full of gloom. Oh yes, it is a good story. George O. Smith is a very busy man these days. As you know, George is a radio engineer at Philco. Well, that takes care of his time during the day. At night he is burying his nose to the grindstone, turned out revisions of the Venus Equilateral stories and the new Mad Holiday to finish up the series. Then he has turned out a number of short stories to keep the kettle boiling and besides all this has completed about 25 thousand words of a new full length novel. Nevertheless, he still finds time to visit the boys for a bull session about once or twice a week. George, by the way, hasn't washed his right hand for several weeks now. That's because with it he shook the hand of the great Babe Ruth in New York. Those of you who are not familiar with Dorothy Sayers' three Omnibus of Crime books should not overlook them, for their contents are at least half fantasy. You will find many of your favorite authors represented in their pares -- Blackwood, Dusany, Doyle, and many more -- Yes, even A. Merritt's People of the Pit appears in one of them. So don't let the title fool you next time, but open them up and look through them yourself. ********************************* "THE TIME HAS COME, THE WALRUS SAID..." While the Heisenberg uncertainty principle appears offhand to be one of those abstruse physical concepts which has no practical value and applies only to very small objects, it can be shown to have a definite effect on a large scale as well. The principle, in brief, states that the velocity and position of a body cannot both be measured perfectly accurately at the same instant. For bodies of ordinary size the accuracy allowable is sufficient for all purposes, and does not affect the results of any of our measuring instruments. However, when we speak of small particles such as an electron, then we discover that it is not possible to tive the electron a definite position or velocity. However, let us imagine that we have a ball bearing which is perfectly round and held perfectly rigid. Imagine that we drop another perfect ball bearing on top of the first one so accurately that it will bounce directly vertically. Theoretically then, in the absence of disturbing forces, the second ball should continue to bounce indefinitely, at least until its energy is absorbed by friction. But will it? Actually, the uncertainty principle gives the position of the bouncing ball just sufficient indefiniteness that after several bounces enough deviation will have been built up to cause the ball to bounce off to the side, It has been calculated that the probability of the ball bouncing more than seven times in one chance out of some number which is tremendous. …………………………………………………… Can we add up an infinite number of finite objects and end up with a sum which is finite? Offhand you would say no. Or would you? [+][+][+][+]……..and so on for al long as you will adds up to a number which keeps getting larger and larger the more terms you add on. Furthermore, no matter how large a number you name, you can always make the sum of this series larger than that number simple by adding sufficient terms. The result is precisely the same even if you add up smaller numbers. You could write: )/100 + 1/100 + 1/100 + 1/100 + 1/100.....and if you added up enough of them you could make the sum larger than any number you could name. So that seems to answer our question in the affirmative.
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May 1947 VARIANT Page 17 Bud Waldo has been suffering recently from grippe, sore throat, and so on. The other night a few of the boys paid his a visit and cheered him a little. He looks pale and thin -- bet his weight has gone down to 229. (Ed.'s note: Since this has been writer, we are glad to say, Bud has recovered -- from the grippe, we mean.) Have you read Pat Frank's Mr. Adam yet? If you didn't, you have missed a lot of good laughs. It is just about the only atomic bomb story that doesn't fill you full of gloom. Oh yes, it is a good story. George O. Smith is a very busy man these days. As you know, George is a radio engineer at Philco. Well, that takes care of his time during the day. At night he is burying his nose to the grindstone, turned out revisions of the Venus Equilateral stories and the new Mad Holiday to finish up the series. Then he has turned out a number of short stories to keep the kettle boiling and besides all this has completed about 25 thousand words of a new full length novel. Nevertheless, he still finds time to visit the boys for a bull session about once or twice a week. George, by the way, hasn't washed his right hand for several weeks now. That's because with it he shook the hand of the great Babe Ruth in New York. Those of you who are not familiar with Dorothy Sayers' three Omnibus of Crime books should not overlook them, for their contents are at least half fantasy. You will find many of your favorite authors represented in their pares -- Blackwood, Dusany, Doyle, and many more -- Yes, even A. Merritt's People of the Pit appears in one of them. So don't let the title fool you next time, but open them up and look through them yourself. ********************************* "THE TIME HAS COME, THE WALRUS SAID..." While the Heisenberg uncertainty principle appears offhand to be one of those abstruse physical concepts which has no practical value and applies only to very small objects, it can be shown to have a definite effect on a large scale as well. The principle, in brief, states that the velocity and position of a body cannot both be measured perfectly accurately at the same instant. For bodies of ordinary size the accuracy allowable is sufficient for all purposes, and does not affect the results of any of our measuring instruments. However, when we speak of small particles such as an electron, then we discover that it is not possible to tive the electron a definite position or velocity. However, let us imagine that we have a ball bearing which is perfectly round and held perfectly rigid. Imagine that we drop another perfect ball bearing on top of the first one so accurately that it will bounce directly vertically. Theoretically then, in the absence of disturbing forces, the second ball should continue to bounce indefinitely, at least until its energy is absorbed by friction. But will it? Actually, the uncertainty principle gives the position of the bouncing ball just sufficient indefiniteness that after several bounces enough deviation will have been built up to cause the ball to bounce off to the side, It has been calculated that the probability of the ball bouncing more than seven times in one chance out of some number which is tremendous. …………………………………………………… Can we add up an infinite number of finite objects and end up with a sum which is finite? Offhand you would say no. Or would you? [+][+][+][+]……..and so on for al long as you will adds up to a number which keeps getting larger and larger the more terms you add on. Furthermore, no matter how large a number you name, you can always make the sum of this series larger than that number simple by adding sufficient terms. The result is precisely the same even if you add up smaller numbers. You could write: )/100 + 1/100 + 1/100 + 1/100 + 1/100.....and if you added up enough of them you could make the sum larger than any number you could name. So that seems to answer our question in the affirmative.
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