Measuring Fractal Dimension ?

[pdpi]

On Jun 29, 3:17 am, greg <g... at cosc.canterbury.ac.nz> wrote:
> Paul Rubin wrote:
> > Steven D'Aprano <st... at REMOVE-THIS-cybersource.com.au> writes:
>
> >>But that depends on what you call "things"... if electron shells are real
> >>(and they seem to be) and discontinuous, and the shells are predicted/
> >>specified by eigenvalues of some continuous function, is the continuous
> >>function part of nature or just a theoretical abstraction?
>
> Another thing to think about: If you put the atom in a
> magnetic field, the energy levels of the electrons get
> shifted slightly. To the extent that you can vary the
> magnetic field continuously, you can continuously
> adjust the energy levels.
>
> This of course raises the question of whether it's
> really possible to continuously adjust a magnetic field.
> But it's at least possible to do so with much finer
> granularity than the differences between energy levels
> in an atom.
>
> So if there is a fundamentally discrete model
> underlying everything, it must be at a much finer
> granularity than anything we've so far observed, and
> the discrete things that we have observed probably
> aren't direct reflections of it.
>
> --
> Greg

Electron shells and isolated electrons stuck in a magnetic field are
different phenomena that can't be directly compared. Or, at least,
such a comparison requires you to explain why it's proper.