Quantum mechanics is crazy stuff

Discussion in 'Science' started by Quasar44, Mar 2, 2020.

  1. Quasar44

    Quasar44 Banned

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    Watched a few youtube shows to educate myself in things I forgot about.

    If you look at an electron- You see a particle
    If you do not look at the electron- You see a Wave


    Just crazy but interesting
     
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  2. UK_archer

    UK_archer Well-Known Member

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    Yes wave particle duality is amazing
     
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  3. Diablo

    Diablo Well-Known Member

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    You've got find out whether the cat is dead or not.
     
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  4. Quasar44

    Quasar44 Banned

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    The CAT is both alive and DEAD !! ITS BOTH. Just as electrons can be anywhere
     
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  5. Quasar44

    Quasar44 Banned

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    I cannot understand anything from the great Feynman. He is just too over my head !!!!
    I am aware of Max Plank and Shrodinger and what they did but Feynman I cannot even grasp
     
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  6. WillReadmore

    WillReadmore Well-Known Member

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    Feynman! Indeed!

    He does have a few books that are easy reads and fascinating even for noobs.

    But, from there ...
     
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  7. Quasar44

    Quasar44 Banned

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    All I got was he created many amazing diagrams to help explain how EM ties into Quantum World ??
    He also did a lot of with Thermodynamics into the Quantum World??
    Plus dozens of other stuff that I did not want to read about
     
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  8. Quasar44

    Quasar44 Banned

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    He seemed to perfect what was already there to a higher level.
    This guy was utterly genius. Plus, he become a very good artist and musician.

    He would literally work on a problem for as long as it took to solve it .
     
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  9. WillReadmore

    WillReadmore Well-Known Member

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    I continue to know the feeling!

    It's a case in point of why we need experts and geniuses.
     
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  10. WillReadmore

    WillReadmore Well-Known Member

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    There are so many great stories about Feynman.

    He was known for unlocking combination safes.

    He could do mental math to ungodly precision - adding patter to allow him time to supply more digits! His technique involved knowing key powers of e, etc.
     
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  11. Quasar44

    Quasar44 Banned

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    My goal was to hear about his life ( which I did on BBC Doc I found on ytube) rather than his Science lol.
    He must have an IQ of about 300 lol
     
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  12. WillReadmore

    WillReadmore Well-Known Member

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    A couple of his books:
    Surely you're joking (billed as "adventures of a curious character", collection edited by Feynman, Insight to the man, perhaps.)

    Six easy pieces (which includes duality)

    Fun reading!
     
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  13. WillReadmore

    WillReadmore Well-Known Member

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    A couple of his books:
    Surely you're joking (great stories! Insight to the man, perhaps.) description of mental math, safe cracking, doing serous physics in his preferred location - a stip club, etc.

    Six easy pieces (which includes duality)
     
  14. GrayMan

    GrayMan Well-Known Member

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    Looking requires the interaction with the particle which alters the properties of the particle. Quantim mechanics sounds crazy probably because it is incomplete or an misinterpretation of the expirements. I prefer the Bohmian Mechanics interpretations myself.
     
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  15. Pycckia

    Pycckia Well-Known Member

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    Reminds me of a story about von Neumann. He was given the following problem:

    Two bicycles twenty miles apart start riding toward each other at 10 mph. A fly on one of the bicycles wheels simultaneous takes of and flies at 15 mph toward the other bicycle. When it reaches the other bicycle it immediate retraces its route to the original bicycle and continues to fly back and forth until it is crushed between the wheels of the bicycles.

    Von Neumann thought for a few seconds and gave the correct answer of 15 miles. His questioner said, "very good Professor. Most people try to sum the infinite series. Von Neumann looked puzzled and replied, "you mean there is another way?"
     
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  16. Quasar44

    Quasar44 Banned

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    You mean electrons from the sensor interacts.
     
  17. Quasar44

    Quasar44 Banned

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    I don’t understand a clue about the genius of Feynman
     
  18. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    The wave function tells us where we will see a particle, and where we will not see a particle, and what the probability is we will see it in a certain specific place.

    That is the "wave nature" of the particle. We never directly see the wave.

    The wave functions of different particles interact with each other, even when the two point-like particles do not.

    So we presume a "wave-like nature" exists, based on the observations of the point-like particles we see.

    However, claiming that a particle is a wave is a philosophical interpretation.
    (And that includes the claim that the cat could be simultaneously both dead and alive)

    No one can really say what the reality is. (At least not from the standpoint of how people intuitively assume reality is)

    Oh, by the way, those whole statements about "seeing things changes things" is dumbed-down hogwash, worded to help make it easier for some people to understand. A more accurate description would be to say "it's all about exchange information", but even that is a little bit oversimplified. Most people do not truly understand the concept of what entanglement truly is, and there are varying different levels of entanglement, it's not an "it is or it's not" thing.

    When you "observe" something, your frame of reference becomes entangled with it.
     
    Last edited: Mar 4, 2020
  19. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Also, here's something that will blow some of your minds:
    When you peak into the box and observe whether the cat is dead or alive, that still doesn't decide the outcome. You both simultaneously saw the cat alive, and saw that the cat was dead. It remains ambiguous until another third observer observes you.
    Things will always seem to behave as a wave to an outside observer whose frame of reference is not yet entangled with yours (or I should be more specific and specify not entangled in a way that would compromise the separation of those reference frames; pretty much everything in reality is entangled together to some distant degree).

    This is probably not something you will ever read. However, it is the type of thing that Feynman would have written.
     
    Last edited: Mar 4, 2020
  20. UK_archer

    UK_archer Well-Known Member

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    A good book to read is In Search of Schrodinger’s Cat by John Gribbin
     
  21. GrayMan

    GrayMan Well-Known Member

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    Sort of. In Bohmian Mechanics the wave is created by the particle but it is the wave that interferes with itself and the direction of the particle causing it to appear random. By eliminating the wave or reducing it, via the sensor, you eliminate the wave and the particles trajectory becomes seemingly less random.
     
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  22. truth and justice

    truth and justice Well-Known Member

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    That question is interesting in that I also was trying to sum series until it occurred to me that it is a simple maths question that an average 12 year old could answer. I was over thinking it
     
    Last edited: Mar 5, 2020
  23. One Mind

    One Mind Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    No one understands what you claim some do. Indeed Feynman warned againt it. Just work the equations he advised.
     
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  24. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    What part don't you understand, and why don't you?

    I am not sure I understand what you stated, since it is a little bit ambiguous and could have different implied meanings.
    (Were you trying to imply that what I was describing is not what experts on the subject understand?)

    Equations are important, but kind of useless in a way if you can't translate them into words.
     
    Last edited: Mar 7, 2020
  25. One Mind

    One Mind Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Feynman said this and unless you are in his pay grade perhaps he knows or knew that no one really understands it on a high level so forget about it and work the equations.

    Sure I have seen some claim to understand it like sean carroll until you have another physicist dive into it witgwith him. Then he finds humility and loses certainty .

    Bohm didnt like the Copenhagen interpretation and figured out another one that had coherence witg wiwith observation and equations. And there are other interpretations for other physicists did not like the implications of Copenhagen. The consciousness deal involved in the double slit.

    But as carroll said on Rogan he has known physicists that were obsessed with understanding it that they went into philosophy for the physics dept listened to Feynman and philosophy is the field if you want to try to understand the quantum level of reality and its implications to reality.
     

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