Will everything that can happen happen?
- Thread starter Mrvile
- Start date
I could get run over by a train. Or I could live my life and never get run over by a train. Everyday something that could happen, doesn't happen.
- Oct 16, 2004
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Hmm. I guess so, like people could say "I could get hit by a train at 9:51 AM, June 2, 2005" and they would never get hit at that time on that day, but we're not talking time here. I mean, everything that could happen ever, will it happen? Like will you, in some other life, get hit by a train? How many lives does one person really live? The odds definately aren't with you.
dullard
Elite Member
- May 21, 2001
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Here is an interesting thing to think about. Solid materials are made of atoms. Atoms vibrate and as they vibrate they are traveling at high velocities (but just over a short distance). On average, in a stationary solid item (such as the monitor in front of you), half of the atoms are going at least partly up and half are going partly down.
Theoretically, it could happen where all the atoms in a solid item randomly just happen to move in the same direction. Thus if the random movements in your monitor all happened to have some partial vertical motion, your monitor would suddenly have all the atoms traveling in a high velocity upwards. Or, in other words, your monitor would suddenly fly off the desk on its own - without being touched.
Statistics says the chance of all of the atoms moving at least partially up could happen, but at a near infinitely small chance. Thus it could happen, but it won't.
the following could happen, but won't
the pope and tommy lee open a bakery in las crusas new mexico and sell penis shaped cresants. the uniform is a purple apron with little white bunnies and yellow duckies and a tall crimson chefs hat with bunny ears on top.
that could happen, but it will never happen
see?
I was with you until you started mentioning alternate lives. Now I'm just going to exit stage left.
- Oct 16, 2004
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Haha, I like that thought. How sure are you that it won't happen? I'm saying will it ever happen in the rest of time? Eternity is quite long. The odds of all the atoms in an object moving the same way pitted against time is a good match, but time's got forever on its side.
moshquerade
No Lifer
- Nov 1, 2001
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dullard
Elite Member
- May 21, 2001
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Infinity * Zero = Depends on the problem
Meaning, for some problems the answer is zero. For some problems, the answer is infinity. For the rest of the problems, the answer is somewhere in between.
For my specific example, your monitor likely won't be on your desk for an infinitely long amount of time. Thus, I take the answer for infinity * 0 = 0 for this case.
- Oct 16, 2004
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Could it really happen then? Like I said in the beginning, things that "can happen" to many people are only things that have happened, or I guess in this case things that will only likely happen. Some time in the future, which could be tomorrow, could be millions of years from now, this might happen. Odds pitted against time, I like that.
- Oct 16, 2004
- 14,066
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Well, that's not really what I meant. And when I said "things that will happen" I didn't mean exactly like specific named events at specific times with specific people. I mean, some things happening are very unlikely. However, if you gave them forever to happen, will they? The example with you getting hit by a train was a bad example on my part. I meant to say that, assuming you lived forever, will you never get hit by a train? Let's say that you never came near train tracks, which really lessens your odds of actually getting hit. But given time (time is my main argument as you can see) you could get hit. I mean after all, $hit happens.
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