Strange testing! Any theories?

[ratchet]

For about a week now, using test mirrors and other test sites, I test at around 4mbps.  However, using the regular 2992kb test, the percent of test bar has been bogging down around the 50% area and all the test are in the 2mbps range.  The percent bar flies to around the higher 40s to low 50s, bogs down for a while then flies again.  I live in the NW part of PA, might be a route thing, however, like I said its the only test that isn't coming out around 4mbps  and I was normally testing at 4mbps with the regular test.  I'd think it was my sp if I wasn't getting good speeds with other tests.  Any theories?  Thank You!

[ROM-DOS]

. . .my equivalence principle is that frames of reference undergoing acceleration and frames of reference in gravitational fields are equivalent, but time runs more slowly in strong gravitational fields. . . .as a restricted sub-theory; in any region of space sufficiently small ~ its curvature can be neglected.

Remember;"Space tells matter how to move; matter tells space how to curve."

[resopalrabotnick]

that being said, does the uncertainty principle apply to speed tersts?

we're measuring mere electrons after all, the testing is bound to influence them.

[ROM-DOS]

This uncertainty leads to some strange effects. For example, in a Quantum Mechanical world, I cannot predict where a particle will be with 100 % certainty. I can only speak in terms of probabilities. For example, I can only say that an atom will be at some location with a 99 % probability, and that there will be a 1 % probability it will be somewhere else (in fact, there will be a small but finite probabilty that it can even be found across the Universe). This is strange.

We do not know if this indeterminism is actually the way the Universe works, because the theory of Quantum Mechanics is probably incomplete. That is, we do not know if the Universe actually behaves in a probabilistic manner (there are many possible paths a particle can follow and the observed path is chosen probabilistically) or if the Universe is deterministic in the sense that I could predict the path a particle will follow with 100 % certainty.

A consequence of the Quantum Mechanical nature of the world is that particles can appear in places where they have no right to be (from an ordinary, common sense [classical] point of view)!

In the Quantum Mechanical world, the idea that we can locate objects exactly breaks down. Let me state this idea more precisely. Suppose a particle has momemtum p and position x. In a Quantum Mechanical world, I would not be able to measure p and x precisely. There would be an uncertainty associated with each measurement that I could never get rid of, even in a perfect experiment!!! The size of the uncertainties are not independent; they are related as

                    dp x dx > h / (2 x pi) = Planck's constant / (2 x pi)

Remember these;

FINAGLE'S CREED

Science is Truth; don't be misled by facts.

THE FINAGLE FACTOR

(Sometimes called the SWAG (Scientific Wild-Assed Guess) Constant)

That quantity which, when multiplied by, divided by, added to, or subtracted from the answer which you got, yields the answer you should have gotten. Items such as 'Finagle's Constant' and the more subtle 'Bougerre Factor' are loosely grouped, in mathematics, under constant variables, or, if you prefer, variable constants. Finagle's Constant, a multiplier of the zero-order term, may be characterized as changing the universe to fit the equation.

The Bougerre (pronounced 'bugger') Factor is characterized as changing the equation to fit the universe. It is also known as the 'Soothing Factor'; mathematically similar to the damping factor, it has the characteristic of dropping the subject under discussion to zero importance.

A combination of the two, the Diddle Coefficient, is characterized as changing things so that universe and equation appear to fit without requiring a change in either.

[resopalrabotnick]

what i meant was the practical application of the uncertainty principle where to detect the path and speed of an object i need to either have the object hity a detector, thereby altering its path and speed or bounce a detectable particle off it, thereby also altering its path and speed. if i measure the speed of an internet connection i am taking the idle connection and loading it to its maximum. does this load change the connections speed? we all know of fast bursts, does using a large test file alter the connection? i say yes, it mnakes it slower than the burst. maybe the packets of the file being sent congest one path and cause the next packets to be sent to be routed along a slower or faster path, there is no telling. well, there is, but i doubt the test takes it into account, since it measures only time not the speed of individual packets. now there is an interesting programming project, measuring not just throughput but the transit time for each packet. woot!

[ROM-DOS]

What about the prevailing Internet 'weather' factor(between you and the test site) ~ that can vary a test hourly and daily?

Don't forget that protocol overhead will mean that you never reach the actual speed advertised by your ISP.

. . .and what about malformed packets associated with routing protocols that can cause undesirable consequences if not detected and contained properly as close to the originator as possible. This issue magnifies the scope and complexity in a large-scale network, such as a public IP network. A malformed routing packet has the potential to impact thousands of customers as well as all the major Internet service providers (ISP) in a matter of seconds.