Yeah, it is so dumb that it is a fundamental physical principle. That was my lame attempt at sarcasm. You question is about as un-dumb as they come. The ability to connect the macroscopic to microscopic is crucial to any theory. This is called the "correspondance principle." Basically you should be able to take any formula describing a microscopic property or action and take limiting values for any scale variables and it should reproduce observed macroscopic properties. A good example is the quantum phenomenon itself. Why is it that we cannot see quantum effects in "real life?" Well if you take your quantum mechanics equations and put in macroscopic values for distance variables (e.g. scales on the order of meters) it is easy to see that the quantum-ness is so fine that we cannot percieve it with ordinary instruments. It looks continuous to us. This correspondance principle is considered so important that it is included in every basic text on Modern Physics. So basically your question again deals with very important considerations in physics. Hardly what I would call dumb.
You can skip this paragraph if you have heard enough. I just wanted to mention that the correspondance principle is for more than just quantum effects. Have you ever heard of the kinetic theory of gases? It is basically statistics which describe the overall motions of the constituent molecules. One of the great efforts in the 19th century was connecting this model to thermodynamics. Kinetic theory describes the micrscopic (molecular motion) while thermodynamics describes the macroscopic (overall temperature/pressure/density of the gas). This connection, basically a correspondance principle, is the subject of a standard core curriculum class in physics graduate schools, "Statistical Mechanics."
So to your questions ...
Quote: The quantum world is part of the macro world, yes? So this quantum world is going on somewhere inside of me, too, yes? I've got little particles of light streaming through me that follow the quantum physics theories?
yes, yes, yes. And your body is made up of protons, electrons, and neutrons that obey quantum physics theories.
Quote: I guess I would describe msyelf (a human) as a closed system... I'm contained. My macro self follows the laws of the macro universe. If I jump off a building, a very high one, I will go splat on the ground because of gravity.
Well, you are not a closed system. You interact at both the macroscopic and microscopic levels with the outside world. You are respirating, shedding skin and hair, emitting and absorbing molecules, etc. And your entire body is under the influence of gravity. AND, when you scuff your feet on a carpet or pull on a sweater, the friction creates an imbalance of charge in your body that manifests itself as "static electricity." AND when you make physical "contact" with an object you are actually experiencing electromagnetic repulsive forces between the charge particles in your body and the other object.
Actually, you will go splat on the ground due to those forces, but gravity is what gave your body the energy to collide with the ground at such a high speed. But that is just being "picky" as they say.
Quote: But... the micro world of me... defies the macro world of me? Or does the macro world of me influence the micro world of me, and that is in fact why gravity at that level IS so unpredictable... for one system is influencing another?
Here is where you really hit on the conundrum. While it is usually easy to take microscopic theories and make them "correspond" to macroscopic observations, the reverse is not true. General Relativity is a macroscopic theory of gravity. Trying to "reverse engineer" the underlying quantum model has so far been beyond the capacity of physicists. So instead they are using the quantum models of the other forces and trying to model quantum gravity in the same way, but again with little success. However, we will succeed! It will just take more time and better equipment.
Sorry again if that was too verbose. I hope that it does answer most of your questions and assuage your fears of sounding dumb. Again, feel free to ask anything else and I will do my best to answer.
Chrome
"Recollect me darlin, raise me to your lips, two undernourished egos, four rotating hips"
That was my lame attempt at sarcasm. You question is about as un-dumb as they come. The ability to connect the macroscopic to microscopic is crucial to any theory. This is called the "correspondance principle." Basically you should be able to take any formula describing a microscopic property or action and take limiting values for any scale variables and it should reproduce observed macroscopic properties. A good example is the quantum phenomenon itself. Why is it that we cannot see quantum effects in "real life?" Well if you take your quantum mechanics equations and put in macroscopic values for distance variables (e.g. scales on the order of meters) it is easy to see that the quantum-ness is so fine that we cannot percieve it with ordinary instruments. It looks continuous to us. This correspondance principle is considered so important that it is included in every basic text on Modern Physics. So basically your question again deals with very important considerations in physics. Hardly what I would call dumb.
