4 ms·
This got me thinking. If you are floating along in a void, and float past a virtual particle - you can legitimately say you are moving (of course you could ins
by jbattle 13y ago
This got me thinking. If you are floating along in a void, and float past a virtual particle - you can legitimately say you are moving (of course you could instead say the virtual particle is moving).
Assume now the virtual particle winks out of existence. Have you suddenly stopped moving? Were you wrong/incorrect somehow to have chosen the particle as the rest frame? Has conservation of (your) momentum just been violated?
- Cushman 13y agoI'm no physicist, but my understanding is that observing a virtual particle is a contradiction in terms.
- tekacs 13y agoObserving a virtual particle directly, surely is.
- boboblong 13y agoNo, you haven't suddenly stopped moving. If you choose the virtual particle's reference frame as the rest frame, then you are moving in its reference frame. If the particle winks out of existence, you are still moving in its reference frame, you just have no way to perceive that fact.