Physics without determinism: Alternative interpretations of classical physics

A Classical Physics Review for Nonclassical Physics

Aspects of Determinism in Modern Physics

The aims of this chapter are to review some aspects of determinism that are familiar to physicists but are little discussed in the philosophical literature and to show how these aspects connect determinism to issues about symmetries in physics, the structure and ontological status of spacetime, predictability, and computability. It will emerge that in some respects determinism is a robust doctr...

Waves in Classical Physics

If I say the word “wave” in no particular context, the image which most probably springs to your mind is one of a roughly periodic undulation on the surface of a pond or, perhaps, the sea. But the concept of a wave in classical physics is actually much more general, and in particular the periodicity is not really an essential aspect. At least in classical (i.e. pre-relativistic as well as pre-q...

Waves in Classical Physics

If I say the word “wave” in no particular context, the image that most probably springs to your mind is one of a roughly periodic undulation on the surface of a pond or, perhaps, the sea. But the concept of a wave in classical physics is actually much more general, and in particular the periodicity is not really an essential aspect. (Huygens, Fourier...) At least in classical (i.e., pre-relativ...

Quantum computing classical physics.

In the past decade, quantum algorithms have been found which outperform the best classical solutions known for certain classical problems as well as the best classical methods known for simulation of certain quantum systems. This suggests that they may also speed up the simulation of some classical systems. I describe one class of discrete quantum algorithms which do so--quantum lattice-gas aut...