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  • $\begingroup$ Being able to describe classical mixtures in quantum theory is not trivial! It is much more that it is tedious to teach and deal with, than that it is uninteresting. $\endgroup$
    – naturallyInconsistent
    Commented May 3, 2023 at 13:00
  • $\begingroup$ I get what you're saying, but isn't this a bit like saying that describing the waveform of white noise is a futile exercise? It still has a waveform, that you can draw - I could go generate some and look at it in Audacity right now $\endgroup$
    – Jack M
    Commented May 3, 2023 at 14:07
  • $\begingroup$ @JackM, There is no definitive waveform of white noise. It's more like, there are infinitely many waveforms that would satisfy some arbitrary test for "whiteness." Maybe I conveyed the wrong impression when I said, "...futile exercise." I can see that there are practical reasons for wanting a test for "whiteness." But, I can't think of any problem that would be solved by analyzing white noise in the time domain. IDK. I'm not a DSP expert. $\endgroup$
    – Solomon Slow
    Commented May 3, 2023 at 14:23
  • $\begingroup$ Describing spectral noise in the time domain is anything but "futile", but the only time we have to is if we are dealing with non-linear systems. Most phenomena concerning light are linear, hence we can greatly simplify our lives by not caring about the pesky behavior of a time-series under non-linear interaction. $\endgroup$
    – FlatterMann
    Commented May 3, 2023 at 15:55