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This is mathematics, not physics. You can define stuff that don't "really" exist in the world, but that work for the purpose of calculating stuff. "randomness"
by d--b 5y ago
This is mathematics, not physics. You can define stuff that don't "really" exist in the world, but that work for the purpose of calculating stuff.
"randomness" has as much right to exist in a mathematical sense as a "point" or a "plane".
- _8j50 5y agoHow can you prove something that isn't real? How is randomness defined as a concept in mathematics?
- DavidSJ 5y agoRandomness is usually defined in terms of a probability distribution, which is just a measure where the total mass assigned to all elements adds up to 1.
- majkinetor 5y agoYou can actually only prove unreal things because you impose limitations. Real things can not be proven, but only disproved.
- siver_john 5y agoAs long as you can clearly define your starting axioms you can mathematically prove or disprove anything. The physical example would be to just say, suppose a universe with the same properties of ours exist but where the gravitational constant is twice as large prove whether X can occur in that universe. As far as how randomness is defined I believe that might be field dependent but this is me getting out of my depth (I've only taken a few courses on combinatorics).
- thfuran 5y agoRandomness exists in physics as well.
- d--b 5y agoI am just responding to the comment which assumes that it doesn't.