Is Wi-Fi safe?

superscaper

Toothsmith wrote: »

You need to remember as well though, that most substance, to an x-ray beam, are as transparent as a pane of glass, and they go straight through.

Exactly, you can't take any analogy too far for anything but in these cases they only apply to the very specific circumstance to which you are demonstrating and can't be used to extrapolate or interpolate anything. To be honest I think overusing analogies and metaphors for things that happen at the atominc level just overly confuses things and is usually misleading in one way or another.

Need_More_Money_2

Toothsmith wrote: »

You need to remember as well though, that most substance, to an x-ray beam, are as transparent as a pane of glass, and they go straight through.

True but they don't all go straight through or else you wouldn't get an image. The image is a map of the differing attenuation coefficients of the different tissues passed through.

peterbaker

Need_More_Money wrote: »

True but they don't all go straight through or else you wouldn't get an image. The image is a map of the differing attenuation coefficients of the different tissues passed through.

So it is still a bit like my tree analogy then? Possibly the image pattern is more like that of woodworm or deathwatch beetle than of a RoadRunner impact? ... most don't die in situ, but emerge eventually but leave a pattern .... Death watch Beetles tick too .... maybe we are getting close to understanding this:-)

superscaper

peterbaker wrote: »

So it is still a bit like my tree analogy then? Possibly the image pattern is more like that of woodworm or deathwatch beetle than of a RoadRunner impact? ... most don't die in situ, but emerge eventually but leave a pattern .... Death watch Beetles tick too .... maybe we are getting close to understanding this:-)

Comparing X-Rays to deathwatch beetles. You should write a book. Can't wait for an analogy for quantum entanglement.

peterbaker

superscaper wrote: »

Can't wait for an analogy for quantum entanglement.

Ah...that old chestnut! Well the answer to that might be an easy one ... how about the Reeh-Schlieder theorem of quantum field theory? Does that hack it?

That said and done, old Super old chap, I think most people would better understand the concept of an incessant or indeterminable ticking noise than they would that of full blown quantum mechanics, so can we perhaps try to keep our audience in mind here? :-)

superscaper

I wasn't giving full blown quantum mechanics. Just a quite popular concept as an example that you can't really easily give an analogue to. You answered it well by giving the only analogue as another quantum theory (nice wikiing by the way), thus demonstrating that it is difficult to place analogues on many of these concepts as they are generally misleading. I find it easier to understand without the metaphor as I then don't get confused into incorrect thinking.

Need_More_Money_2

peterbaker wrote: »

So it is still a bit like my tree analogy then? Possibly the image pattern is more like that of woodworm or deathwatch beetle than of a RoadRunner impact? ... most don't die in situ, but emerge eventually but leave a pattern .... Death watch Beetles tick too .... maybe we are getting close to understanding this:-)

Didn't you mention you had a physics degree? So you'll understand about attenuation already?

peterbaker

superscaper wrote: »

... I then don't get confused into incorrect thinking.

Yes I see ...

Perish the thought! .... (of your mind being perished by my metaphorical particles or waves, or too broad swathes of thought!) .... or of anything being perished inadvertently, therefrom.

superscaper

peterbaker wrote: »

Yes I see ...

Perish the thought! .... (of your mind being perished by my metaphorical particles or waves, or too broad swathes of thought!) .... or of anything being perished inadvertently, therefrom.

What I'm trying to put across is that I don't really understand any of your analogies and don't see the connection. Like the whole woodworm and tree thing for X Rays, I just don't understand at all. It's not as if I don't understand X Rays I just can't see the connection to your analogies and if I can't understand the relevance to the concept then I don't see how anyone without any knowledge or experience of X Rays would be able to or if they do I'm sure it is an incorrect understanding of the concept.

peterbaker

Hi SS ... sorry I had to leave our discussion earlier ...

It is easy to point out inconsistency between wholly different types of event in physics.

Similarities between apparently unconnected types of event are less easy to work with.

Which of these ideas might be the most exciting for budding scientists in our schools to wrestle with and to get fun out of experiments and learning?

Forgive me if what I am about to relate does not ring true to you, but it is something I was taught when I studied physics a very long time ago: All great discoveries in science involve using known science or similarities to known science to a point, and then usually require a quantum leap forward, almost a leap of faith, to some hypothetical proposition without real foundation. Before the discovery can be ratified as true, that proposition has to be worked back, or the known science worked forward or both, until the gap is closed and the hypothesis becomes proven new theory.

In developing new ideas which may or may not become a formal hypothesis, let alone proven theory, thought doesn't have to be concentrated in extrapolation of known science. Lateral thinking in every dimension is allowed! Of course if your preference is to spend time with more disciplined or more rational thinkers, then that is your prerogative, but not all worthwhile discoveries are made by disciplined rational thinkers so sometimes you might be surprised!

Actually I wasn't taught much of the foregoing, I wrote it 'on the hoof' but it is broadly what I believe:-) ... and I think it might be a bit boring in a school physics classroom for a pupil to ask a question about WiFi and even make one or two propositions or try a few analogies and metaphors from his experience and then be somewhat derided and advised that perhaps he ought to consider the possible analogies to quantum entanglement first!

Personally developing an analogy around RoadRunner hitting a tree with no worse effect than a few stars and rolling eyes makes me smile most! The risks posed by uncontrolled use of WiFi are evidently not something to be taken too seriously according to experts, so surely you will allow a little fun to creep in to the discussion?