this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2024
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Supposedly, in a classic episode of Doctor Who, the Doctor calculated that there was a non-zero chance for all of the molecules in a rubber ball to align with all of the molecules in a wall in such a way as to allow the ball to pass through the wall. He then spent some time bouncing the ball off of said wall to test the theory. Perhaps something similar could be a backup plan for the guy in this comic.
There's a higher non-zero change for the ball to undergo a spontaneous nuclear explosion.
I never saw the episode myself, but I suspect that is not what happened in the episode.
IIRC, they were released from their imprisonment before the hypothesis could be fully tested. But I haven’t seen the episode in a very, very long time.
How is that possible? The ball is interacting with its own atoms via the electromagnetic field, right? Providing enough of a repellant force so it doesn't phase through itself. Why would the wall be any different?
I thought this kind of thing was quantum tunneling.
Generally speaking, I would say that Doctor Who is more about whimsy than fact.
SCIENTIFIC whimsy!
Though quantum mechanics come awfully damn close to "wibbly wobbly, timey wimey."
As the Doctor said, the chance wasn’t zero. In infinite quantum realities, it might happen. Eventually.
New Who would let it actually happen when nobody was looking... then have the Doctor lament that without the ball, he's just bored.
In a later scene, the companion would ask about the ball, and the Doctor would make an off-hand quip about it actually having passed through the wall, but they don’t believe it.
that indeed is quantum tunneling