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Re:A Growing Number of Scientists Are Convinced the Future I... by dekhn on Friday March 17, 2023 @04:45PM (#35202668)
In a well defined system, a probabiltiy of zero by definition means an event is impossible.
Re:A Growing Number of Scientists Are Convinced the Future I... by lupire on Saturday March 18, 2023 @08:45AM (#35208636)
In physics, nothing can be measured exactly, so exact events are in fact impossible. Measurements are approximate, and thus have finite extent, and thus can have nonzero probability.

This whole thread is silly, The 2nd law is about probabilities which are asymptotically 0, so small in practice that we could never do experiments to frequentist probability empirically, using "jars of marbles" with more than 100 marbles", let alone trillions of trillions of particles.

Re:A Growing Number of Scientists Are Convinced the Future I... by a257 on Sunday March 19, 2023 @03:44AM (#35216909)
That is a great point. The laws of thermodynamics exist as a logical consequence to fundamental statistical principles. It is statistical mechanics that gives rise to entropy, not the other way around. (hence the beautifully elegant equation S = Kb*ln(Omega) where Omega is the number of microstates)

I realize that programmers are not always good scientists. Yet some claims are absurd in ways that I now believe this phenomenon necessitates rigorous study.

Re:A Growing Number of Scientists Are Convinced the Future I... by a257 on Sunday March 19, 2023 @03:28AM (#35216822)
> Zero probability does not mean an event cannot occur! It means the probability measure gives the event (a set of outcomes) a measure zero. [0]

[0] https://stats.stackexchange.com/a/273398