Principles of Classical Physics - Locality, Continuity, and Determinism

Now to examine the last three principles of Classical Physics.

Locality is the idea that particles or objects may only be moved or influenced by direct contact, or some local event.  Not something at a distance.  When Quantum Physics came up with the idea of entanglement Einstein protested loudly.  Entanglement is where particles are 'connected', and can be at a large distance, and what happens to one is registered on the other.  Einstein called it 'Spooky Action at a Distance'.  But since then many experiments have been performed and despite Einstein's brilliance, he was wrong on this one.  Locality does not apply in this situation of entangled particles and thus can't be considered a general principle of physics.

Continuity is the idea that there are no sudden jumps in the values of nature, like energy and space, and that everything flows smoothly  For example if you turn up the voltage going into a light bulb you might expect that amount of light produced would increase gradually; if graphed a smooth curve.  However, one of the earliest discoveries leading up to Quantum Physics showed that the value do not increase as in a smooth curve upward, but goes in jumps like stairs.  Since then virtually every measurable quantity in physics, including space, has been shown to increase in this non-continuous, step like fashion, if broken down to its smallest units of measurement.  Apparently, the real world is jumpy not continuous.

Determinism is the last principle of Classical Physics.  This is the assumption that all the events in nature proceed in an orderly fashion, in that one event follows as a consequence of another, and there is a predictable chain of happenings which can be calculated and viewed.  Einstein again felt very strongly about this principle and when presented quantum physical evidence to the contrary said "God does not play dice with the universe."  However, as more and more quantum theory developed and evidence gathered, this randomness is very close to what the picture painted.  It turns out that instead of A --> B (A causes or leads to B) with a certainty, that all such events are actually just probabilities.  A may have a very strong probability of leading to B, but there are also small chances it may lead to C, D, or E.  This is used, as one small example, in electronics when a electron hits an insulated wall, it will stop or bounce off normally, but maybe a 1 in a trillion chance will occur where it appears on the other side of the wall.  In everyday life we don't usually encounter this kind of probability because most the events we see occur are the very high probability events,  and we just assume a cause and effect relationship.  But, again, on an atomic scale this is a known situation and only probabilistic models work.  Determinism is a principle which only has workability in a limited everyday sense.

So, all five on the principles of Classical Physics are shown to not be true in light of modern physics.  This is not to say they don't have value.  The principles of Classical Physics can be used and applied to much advantage because it is a good approximation which applies well to the world we live in, and our perception range.  But as far the Universe at large goes, it lies far from the truth.