1

My knowledge on physics is really minimal. But I always wondered if my decision of watching a live Spanish football game on television, while I am in The Netherlands, affects the game in some way, compared to me not watching the live game on television but deciding to do some other activity.

My reasoning for this was that the state of the air molecules and particles or whatever air and everything is made of, is affected in a specific way by me due to making the choice of entering the room with the television and remaining in that space the whole time and thus affecting its state structure of molecules and all. Me having changed the trajectory and path of these molecules, making these mollecules collide with other mollecules causing a chain reaction of molecule interaction towards molecules in spain where the game is played, creating a slight difference in air density or whatever a player can be affected by.

Hope you are getting what I am trying to say and ask haha. (I had to change the title because it said it was seen as spam, now I do not think the title makes any sense).

Krokoko
  • 19

2 Answers2

2

In a live game being broadcast by radio or television waves, the signals will reach you at the speed of light. Anything you could do to the air molecules could travel no faster than the speed of sound, which is much slower than light. The game would most likely be over before any atmospheric effects could reach there. So, unless you interacted with the game electronically, or were fairly close, you could not affect the outcome.

Adrian Howard
  • 8,513
  • beware that most people will be digitally streaming now-a-days with a 2 to 20 second buffering delay - it does not change this answer, but it is a good thing to know – Paul Young Dec 30 '19 at 21:34
1

What you are describing is often called The Butterfly Effect. That name comes from the notion that a butterfly, flapping its wings in China, could have an impact on the weather in Canada. This is a part of Chaos Theory, where it is impossible to make a prediction on an outcome because of many many small variables. In a physics forum, like this, we are then taken to quantum theory where it is impossible to predict both the position and velocity of a particle. It gets really complicated.

In the 1800s, it was postulated that if we had perfect information about the position and velocity of every particle in the universe, then we might be able to predict the future. But all of the things mentioned above show that this is just not possible. It is impossible to know these things at the quantum level, let alone whether a butterfly is flapping its wings in China.

But looking at the answer from Adrian above, that the time delay between you and the game is a factor. You might be able to say that you went out and bought a case of beer 3 days before the game and that might possibly have an impact on the weather during the game, and thus have changed the direction of one particular kick on goal. But as per the butterfly effect and chaos theory, it would be completely impossible for you to make any prediction on this.

foolishmuse
  • 4,551