Mind = Blown
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Soldato
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I'm here from the year 3000 and can inform you that, ten years from now, you will invent the time machine. Thanks.
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…is more or less unrelated to this phenomenon
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This is wave-particle duality.
It happens because any quantum state (the electron in this case) is described by an abstract wavefunction. It is this wavefunction that is interfering with itself as it passes through the slits. The system is disrupted by observation because in the quantum regime, a system is in an indeterminate state (a superposition or combination of all possible states) until it is observed. In other words, if the electron is not observed, it does not have a determinate state, and so it doesn't "select" either of the slits to pass through. If it's observed, however, its state collapses into just one of the possible states it could take (i.e. that it passes through one other other, or neither).
Read more about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_function_collapse
The notion of particles as tangible "things" that can be pinned down for any point in time and examined is, in the quantum regime, at best not very useful and at worst misleading. Due to the limitations of observation, particles do not have any definite state. Like I said, until they're observed, they can only be described probabilistically in terms of a mathematical wavefunction. Even when observed, however, their exact properties (e.g. position and momentum) cannot all be known simultaneously, due to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. The HUP doesn't state that our ability to measure things is insufficient; rather it's a statement about the fundamental limits of knowledge.
It's not really relevant. The point is that once you "know" the state of the system (by whatever means you like), it collapses into an observable state (a so-called eigenstate), rather than a superposition state, which is a combination of all possible observable states that defines the probability of collapse into each of the constituent eigenstates.
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So true
If I was shown this, which is 5 mins long I would have learn more than I would have done in an hour science lesson.
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Fantastic video - made my morning that did.
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All of these phenomena are the result of quantum mechanics.
It's hard to really understand without getting into any hardcore maths, but you can consider that QM makes the following assumptions:
1. That the energy level of a particle will change in discrete jumps (rather than continuously)
2. The position of a particle is NOT a fixed point, and is instead represented by something called a 'wave function', which is basically like a bell-curve representing the probability of where the particle is.
If instead of forming Newton's laws of motion, using the classical assumptions about how matter works (i.e like 'marbles' as in the video), you make the assumptions up above, you come out with Schroedinger's equation. From solving Schroedinger's equation you can see all the strange quantum phenomena emerge.
Anyway... The bottom line is that matter acts in a strange and 'quantum' way (like in the video), but as it is lumped together into larger objects the uncertainty effects from each 'particle' being delocalised (via the wave function) become diminished. After a certain point (a few thousand molecules should do it) it's almost impossible to trace any 'quantum weirdness' effects.
There is a lot of research goes into finding quantum phenomena in larger and larger objects...
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Awesome THEORIES.
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"Explain quantum physics simply?
When I moved from Los Angeles, I moved into what I thought was Santa Cruz. Then we had something stolen from our car, and we called the police, and I found out we didn't live in Santa Cruz, we lived in a town called Capitola. The Post Office thought we lived in Santa Cruz, but the police thought we lived in Capitola. I started investigating this, and a reporter on the local newspaper told me we lived in neither Santa Cruz or Capitola, we lived in an unincorporated area called Live Oak.
Now, quantum mechanics is just like that, except that in the case of Santa Cruz, Capitola, and Live Oak, we don't get too confused, because, remember, we invented the lines on the map. Quantum physics seems confusing because a lot of people believe we didn't invent the lines, so it seems hard to understand how a particle can be in three places at the same time without being anywhere at all. But when you remember that we invented all of the boundaries, borders and lines, just like the Berlin Wall, then quantum mechanics is no more mysterious than the fact that I live in three places at the same time.
No Chinese raised on I Ching has ever found quantum mechanics puzzling. It's only puzzling to people raised on Aristotelian logic where things are either A or not A. In the I Ching, things are A and not A at the same time.
With quantum mechanics, you can prove that light is made out of particles experimentally. You can build up a whole mathematical theory of light traveling in little particles called photons, and you can do experiments, and the experiments will give you a pattern showing that light is traveling like particles. We've also got a whole mathematical theory built up showing that light travels as waves, and we've got experiments that will show you that light travels as waves. As one physicist in the 1920s said, "It looks as if the damn light is waiting to see how we're going to do the experiment and then deciding which way it's going to travel. Schroedinger said, "I wish I never got mixed up with this radomptoquantumschringereit. This goddamned quantum jumping." The modified Copenhagen view is light is neither waves nor particles until we look, and then it adjusts itself depending on what we're looking at it with. An electron is not anywhere until we look, and when we look, the electron decides to be somewhere as long as we're looking. As soon as we stop looking, the electron is everywhere again.
Every model we make tells us how our mind works as much as it tells about the universe. These are just human symbolic games. The universe itself is bigger than any of our models.
According to Zen Buddhism, and most forms of Buddhism, and quantum mechanics, any description of the universe which leaves you out is inaccurate, because any description of the universe, and the description of the instrument that you use to take your reading of the universe -- if the only instrument you use is your own nervous system, you gotta include your own nervous system in your description of the universe.
So, ergo, any model we make does not describe the universe, it describes what our brains are capable of seeing at this time.
Long before quantum mechanics, the German philosopher Husserl said that all perception is gamble. Every type of bigotry, every type of racism, sexism, prejudice, every dogmatic ideology that allows people to kill other people with a clear conscience, every stupid cult, every superstition-ridden religion, every kind of ignorance in the world, are all results from not realizing that our perceptions are gambles. We believe what we see, and then we believe our interpretation of it, but we don't even know we're making an interpretation most of the time." - Robert Anton Wilson
When I moved from Los Angeles, I moved into what I thought was Santa Cruz. Then we had something stolen from our car, and we called the police, and I found out we didn't live in Santa Cruz, we lived in a town called Capitola. The Post Office thought we lived in Santa Cruz, but the police thought we lived in Capitola. I started investigating this, and a reporter on the local newspaper told me we lived in neither Santa Cruz or Capitola, we lived in an unincorporated area called Live Oak.
Now, quantum mechanics is just like that, except that in the case of Santa Cruz, Capitola, and Live Oak, we don't get too confused, because, remember, we invented the lines on the map. Quantum physics seems confusing because a lot of people believe we didn't invent the lines, so it seems hard to understand how a particle can be in three places at the same time without being anywhere at all. But when you remember that we invented all of the boundaries, borders and lines, just like the Berlin Wall, then quantum mechanics is no more mysterious than the fact that I live in three places at the same time.
No Chinese raised on I Ching has ever found quantum mechanics puzzling. It's only puzzling to people raised on Aristotelian logic where things are either A or not A. In the I Ching, things are A and not A at the same time.
With quantum mechanics, you can prove that light is made out of particles experimentally. You can build up a whole mathematical theory of light traveling in little particles called photons, and you can do experiments, and the experiments will give you a pattern showing that light is traveling like particles. We've also got a whole mathematical theory built up showing that light travels as waves, and we've got experiments that will show you that light travels as waves. As one physicist in the 1920s said, "It looks as if the damn light is waiting to see how we're going to do the experiment and then deciding which way it's going to travel. Schroedinger said, "I wish I never got mixed up with this radomptoquantumschringereit. This goddamned quantum jumping." The modified Copenhagen view is light is neither waves nor particles until we look, and then it adjusts itself depending on what we're looking at it with. An electron is not anywhere until we look, and when we look, the electron decides to be somewhere as long as we're looking. As soon as we stop looking, the electron is everywhere again.
Every model we make tells us how our mind works as much as it tells about the universe. These are just human symbolic games. The universe itself is bigger than any of our models.
According to Zen Buddhism, and most forms of Buddhism, and quantum mechanics, any description of the universe which leaves you out is inaccurate, because any description of the universe, and the description of the instrument that you use to take your reading of the universe -- if the only instrument you use is your own nervous system, you gotta include your own nervous system in your description of the universe.
So, ergo, any model we make does not describe the universe, it describes what our brains are capable of seeing at this time.
Long before quantum mechanics, the German philosopher Husserl said that all perception is gamble. Every type of bigotry, every type of racism, sexism, prejudice, every dogmatic ideology that allows people to kill other people with a clear conscience, every stupid cult, every superstition-ridden religion, every kind of ignorance in the world, are all results from not realizing that our perceptions are gambles. We believe what we see, and then we believe our interpretation of it, but we don't even know we're making an interpretation most of the time." - Robert Anton Wilson
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Well it really just proves how much science knows about reality and things = nothing...lol
a lot of experiments are based on observation. So as suggested by this vid we are changing the outcome and therefore the experiment is invalid...or at least the result is.
Never had much faith in physics and yes i studied it at A level and university.
a lot of experiments are based on observation. So as suggested by this vid we are changing the outcome and therefore the experiment is invalid...or at least the result is.
Never had much faith in physics and yes i studied it at A level and university.
I'd argue it shows there is far more to the universe that we live in, than the one we see day to day. Thinking of particles as having wavefunctions, is really just a mathematical model that allows us to predict what will happen next. These videos/and books tend to speak in analogies, as that is the only way to explain what the maths is telling us. To get to hung up on what is actually happening is a bit misleading. These mathematical models have worked well enough for us to use them to build many of the modern things we see today.