Author: Emily Conover / Source: Science News
You would be forgiven for thinking that real numbers are, in fact, real — the word is right there in the name.
But physicist Nicolas Gisin doesn’t think so.He’s not questioning the mathematical concept of a real number. The term refers to a number that isn’t imaginary: It has no factor of i, the square root of negative one. Instead, Gisin, of the University of Geneva, debates the physical reality of real numbers: Do they appropriately represent nature? Physicists regularly use real numbers to describe the world: velocities, positions, temperatures, energies. But is that description really correct?
Gisin — known for his work on the foundations and applications of quantum mechanics — takes issue with real numbers that consist of a never-ending string of digits with no…
The post Real numbers don’t cut it in the real world, this physicist argues appeared first on FeedBox.