Lesson #10: The Double Slit Experiment

That... was weird. Wicked cool, but wicked weird. Quantum physics are so bafflingly bizarre. :P

Hmm, so by watching their own test, they changed the results. Are they implying a sentience to the electrons or that their own experiment is inadequate to study electrons? My guess is the latter but...

It certainly makes me think about psychologists finding out that people often behave differently and give different answers based on whether they think they are being observed and by whom.

And when you get down to an electron level, aren't things all made up of swirling "energy" more similar to waves anyways rather than some "solid" type thing like a ball?

Thats what's so wacky about quantum mechanics and quantum physics. The results are just....WEIRD!

An electron DOES have mass. Therefore it is, pretty much like he says, a tiny 'marble'. But it does have properites of a wave...the question is, how does it do both?

Current quantum theory says, not that electrons (or other tiny particles) are sentient, but actually exist in all states at once until someone looks at it. I may not be explaining this properly, but here is an example:

A particle is generated at the sun. It travels towards earth but find the moon in the way and so bends around it (standard gavity). It could EITHER travel over the top of the moon OR under it (for sake of keeping it simple). According to quamtum theory it actually travels BOTH paths...UNTIL someone actually takes the time to look to see which path it took.

A similar effect is the fact that we can never know BOTH where AND how fast a particle like an electron is moving. No, that is not bunk. I did the actual math in physics class back in college...no I doubt I could remember how to do that now :)

And then there is Schrodingers Cat. A cat is put in a box with a piece of radioactive material, and a sensor that senses radioactivity that is connected to a vial of cyanide gas. If the sensor detects radioactivity, the gas is realsed and the cat dies. Whether or not the raioactive material releases a particle of radiation is completely random.
According to the math, unless you open the box and actually look, the cat is both alive and dead at the same time because we can't know if that radioactive particle was released.

Eh, I never really got into the Schrodinger's Cat idea. I mean, the cat's there to observe whether it's dead or not. I think it's just a wee bit egotistical to think that nothing would happen until a human got involved.

[quote="Kassidy"]Eh, I never really got into the Schrodinger's Cat idea. I mean, the cat's there to observe whether it's dead or not. I think it's just a wee bit egotistical to think that nothing would happen until a human got involved.[/quote]

[b]I KNEW I SAVED THIS FOR SOMETHING!![/b]

[img]http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg282/copperdusk/maybe.jpg[/img]

:D I love that...

[quote="Kassidy"]Eh, I never really got into the Schrodinger's Cat idea. I mean, the cat's there to observe whether it's dead or not. I think it's just a wee bit egotistical to think that nothing would happen until a human got involved.[/quote]

But thats why quantum theory is so wacky! Thats EXACTLY what happens!!!

Good call on the cat, being a living thing that can observe itself, but its not a true experiment that was actually done. It was just theoretical. But the idea is sound.

Is there a particular reason it's a cat?

Cat?  Are you watching the same link I posted???

I was reffering to schrodinger's Cat.

Ahhh...thats a lesson for another day...when I finally get the motivation to start posting here again...