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And I never understand what is a "measurement". Has it something to do with a human being observing it? Isn't any measurement just electromagnetic or gravitatio
by rohit2412 7y ago
And I never understand what is a "measurement". Has it something to do with a human being observing it? Isn't any measurement just electromagnetic or gravitation forces acting on it, which act all the time?
- platz 7y agoI think one development that occurred since the late 80's, is that most physicists don't think conciousness is required at all, developing the idea of "decoherence" instead. Not that resolves the measurement problem in any way, of course.
- cygx 7y agoA measurement is an interaction that crosses the Heisenberg cut separating the quantum from the classical world. Eg you prepare an atom in a superposition of states relative to some 'quantization axis' determined by a Stern-Gerlach apparatus. The state will randomly 'collapse' into one of the available final states, resulting in a macroscopic dot on some screen. You and all your physicist buddies will agree on the placement of the dot. There is no agreement on how this happens, complicated by the fact that there is no such thing as a classical world I alluded to above, ie any interactions with the apparatus and the conscious observers supposedly obey the laws of quantum mechanics.