penny wrote:Quantum effects are consistent, therefore quantum fluctuations should also be consistent. Quantum manipulation is consistent as well; or it would be impossible to use it in our next generation quantum computers because these quantum computers would then be impossible.
Jonathan_S wrote:On the contrary quantum fluctuations are about the only source we know of of basically perfect randomness.
Yes, they vary within a definable range - but they are equally likely to be any value within that range; and their value at one instant has zero correlation to their value at the next instant.
penny wrote:You said exactly what I meant. Quantum fluctuations will always vary within a definable range. Consistent. That is why I said all you have to do is add the appropriate weight back in from the tables in the back or front of the book (adjust by the appropriate weight). But of course, you cannot pinpoint a certain value; which would be completely contrary to quantum theory.
tlb wrote:We are trying to say that the wall is chaotic, involving gravity shears, energy flows and fluctuations. Instead you think an "appropriate weight" can be ADDED to account for all effects. What if sometimes that has to be subtracted? What if it manifests itself as a force that can have both a random magnitude (even if it is capped by some value) and a random direction?
Jonathan_S wrote:Exactly - knowing an unmeasurably value might, for example, be any value between 0.5 and 2.5 doesn't really help if that range of fluctuations causes a multiple lightsecond dispersion in your entry point. What can you add in to the unknown to counter that?
tlb wrote:There is NO reason to assume that there are only two possible results, NOR that two successive jumps would end up with the same displacement from the origin. Instead they will end up somewhere in the circle defined by the origin and what we hope will be the maximum possible displacement from that origin. From the text in chapter 38 of Echoes of Honor (given earlier in this thread), we know that could be on the order of light seconds.
Again, if the answer were easy, then would already have been solved in the Honorverse.
Jonathan_S wrote:Yeah, I would expect a spherical error margin; unless something goes especially wrong you're going to appear within X of your target point, but you're equally likely to be displaced in any direction from it.
If the variations were purely quantum then it'd probably be an evenly weighted error (you're just as likely to appear at any point within that probability sphere) - but if there's some classical component then it seems more likely it'd be a weighted distribution (for example, you're more likely to emerge closer to the center of the target than right out at the edges of the probability sphere).
penny wrote:Jonathan, you also are not staying within the parameters of our exchange.
I posited the ability to duplicate a jump inputting the exact same data under the exact same conditions with the same ship. I do not think the fluctuations are from moment to moment or doglegs would be impossible. Period. It wasn't luck what Theophile Kgari pulled off.
So, under the exact same conditions, a jump should produce nearly the same results. I attempted to explain my interpretations of the differences, and why.
Jonathan_S has been consistent and you seem to avoid what he is saying. So what do you mean about "the parameters of the exchange"? Do you mean that he should allow you to incorrectly interpret what he said?