Principal of Locality

[NatCurio]

Albert Einstein in his article “Quantum Mechanics and Reality” (“Quanten-Mechanik und Wirklichkeit”, Dialectica 2:320-324, 1948) stated:

The following idea characterises the relative independence of objects far apart in space (A and B): external influence on A has no direct influence on B; this is known as the Principle of Local Action, which is used consistently only in field theory. If this axiom were to be completely abolished, the idea of the existence of quasienclosed systems, and thereby the postulation of laws which can be checked empirically in the accepted sense, would become impossible.

I don’t think there is generally any differentiation made between it being applicable to quantum mechanics versus classical mechanics. It could be that it’s not necessarily applicable to quantum mechanics, but I don’t see how it can’t be applicable to classical mechanics.

The obvious problem at the quantum level is entanglement, so we may suggest locality is not valid. However, present thinking is there is no way to actually use entanglement as a method of communication. So at a classical level, it seems the principal of locality is valid.

Do you think the principal of locality is widely accepted? At what level?

[d0rkyd00d]

I wish I understood it enough to make an educated response. =( anywhere i can do some quick leyman’s reading on it?

[NatCurio]

Hi dorky,
you can check out Wikipediabut I know I’ve read discussions of this on this board as well on this thread, about 3/4 of the way down.

Basically, the “principal of locality” simply says that two things must interact in order to affect one another. And of course, to interact, they must be adjacent to one another.