Uncertainty Prevails
A journey across the Pacific Ocean involves many sea days, which we love. Robinson Crusoe Island ticked off and the anchor raised (the sea being so deep in that bay that it took fifteen minutes to get it back up fully), we set sail again, bound for Easter Island, four days sailing away.
Thankfully, the weather has improved, the sun is shining and we have plenty of choices for how to spend our day.
But out there on the horizon, we notice a storm. Even if it's sunny right now, the weather can change in a few minutes and this morning, we sailed through the storm in the time it took us to eat breakfast.
I had signed up for a place with Cultural Ambassador June, to make a traditional Polynesian Lei and joined her first class yesterday. She began with a dance, or perhaps more accurately a series of movements resembling a Haka, a form of prayer to calm the spirit and energise our creativity.
June had some examples of how the nuts could be arranged and having polished each of them using a little oil, we began to thread them together. She had painted some of the nuts with our destinations en route across the Pacific.
The end result was rather good, I thought, and a great souvenir of the trip. In a couple of days, we’ll make a bracelet along similar lines.
Following on from Bill Lee's presentation explaining Einstein's Theory the other day, he offered one on Quantum Mechanics. Well, of course we gave it a try - what's not to like? It was actually really good, very entertaining and though I followed his explanation, at the conclusion of his talk I had to agree with the physicist Richard Feynman even though Bill did his very best to explain! My notes include “the improbability of probability” and “uncertainty prevails”, but references to The Big Bang Theory and a great example (see below) of the kind of problem Quantum Physicists are trying to solve did at least enlighten me to what QM is all about.
“Well, nobody's brain exploded yet” 😂
My sea day bag is key to enjoying the day, for sure, for in answer to any potential boredom, I have remedies on hand, “just in case”. There's the daily Mensa puzzle sheet (though that could well have been solved already), my notebook and camera for anything interesting to share here or keep for future use, the needlepoint kit I haven't really started yet and one of the socks I'm knitting right now. Of course, there's my phone with the Kindle app so that I can read if the opportunity arises and if the wifi is playing nicely, there's all my usual apps to read and play.
Back in the suite, I'm glad of some time to update my travel journal now and again as well.
Of course, none of the knitting, the journal or other bits and pieces are likely to get done. What usually happens is we get sidetracked, chat to friends in the coffee shop, linger in the library and find an interesting book to look at or discover something on the programme we hadn't spotted earlier and decide to join in the fun. The great thing is, the day is ours. We can relax and simply enjoy being here, for a sea day or four on one of the most luxurious ships, with everything included is a pretty nice place to be!
And…
That great example Bill used to illustrate how there are no givens in QM:
A “normal” maths problem would be something like this: Jane has ten oranges to sell at 50p each. (Well, Bill's Jane was American, so they were 50c each) Tim has £10 in his pocket and buys three oranges. How much money does he have left?
The QM version: Jane has an assortment of fruits at a variety of prices between 20p and £3.10. Tim has some of his pocket money to spend and chooses a number of fruit to buy from Jane. How much money does he have left?
Uncertainty prevails indeed!
