Re: Identity

From: Eugene Leitl (eugene.leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)
Date: Sat Nov 21 1998 - 16:27:23 MST


Randall Randall writes:

> The very language you use betrays the assumption that they
> are not, in fact, identical. To wit, "positions" is plural,
> and perfect identity would require that they have an identical
> position, no?

Hang language. Can you give me a measurement procedure how you are
supposed to distinguish between these copies if your observation of
their spacetime trajectories is interrupted? Space itself isn't
labelled, nor are system's particles.

I'd presume otherwise identical objects is indistinguishable, since
space is rotationally and translationally invariant. (It's actually
not enantioinvariant, but you'll find that out if you look _very_
closely).

ciao,
'gene



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 14:49:49 MST