Stabroek News

Quantum tunneling requires pre-existent matter

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Dear Editor, I refer to Ian McDonald’s last Sunday column on Faith and Science.

I replied to Ian a long time ago after a similar article that Field = Order. This may be why he still insists on placing the answer in the realms of suppositio­n that “the simple, ultimate answer to the scientists is: Who do you think thought up the equations in the first place?”

When the physicists describe gravitatio­nal and quantum fields, it means they discovered an order, which orders the matter and energy in the universe that we experience. So we have now the existence of at least 3 things to explain: the fieldorder­s, the matter-energies, and the cause.

Ian evidently knows neither physics nor the Bible, so he chooses to believe physicists who don’t know the Bible that quantum tunneling is the cause. This physicist, who knows the Bible, chooses to believe God is the cause.

Those physicists jolly well ought to know that quantum tunneling is governed by the laws of probabilit­y and statistics, which the mathematic­ians happily use without a thought as to where those laws came from. In order to get more out of the vanishingl­y negligible amount from the tunneling, the particles have to be removed and keep being removed. And guess who arranges that. Yes, the physicist or electronic engineer in person, not the particles following their laws.

The quantum tunneling that we experience requires pre-existent matter. It has never been observed to tunnel out of nowhere, much less explosivel­y with any sort of bang. Hard working physicists may feel the need to popularize their work and often indulge in speculatio­ns to appeal to peoples’ favoured notions, one of which is unbelief in God, Ian’s pet notion.

But he need not remain in the silences he composed. Matters like these are studied 5.30 pm every Saturday at a Church he knows. Yours faithfully, Alfred Bhulai

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