4 ms·
I think the author (Sean Carroll - whose other books I've read and pre-prdered the one this article comes from) is trying to point out that we're at a stage whe
by russellbeattie 7y ago
I think the author (Sean Carroll - whose other books I've read and pre-prdered the one this article comes from) is trying to point out that we're at a stage where maybe we should regroup a bit and find better analogies for what's happening in the quantum world, which may lead to better understanding in the future. The mish-mash of crazy phenomena could be laid out a bit more logically than "wow, check out this insanity!" We need to kill Shrodinger's cat, stop yammering about entanglement, and stop talking about wave functions as if they're real things. There has to be better ways to describe this stuff.
Personally, I think they should start with the nomenclature. It may have been amusing at first to call things strange and up and down and colored, etc. but at this point it's a mess, especially when it's now clear that many particles are just the same thing with varying energy levels.
Also, while I'm on a rant, the double slit experiment is crap. It never shows the particle grouping pattern, just the interference pattern. They talk about measuring the photon at the slit, collapsing the wave function and creating a grouping as if by little ping-pong balls, but it's never demonstrated!
- AstralStorm 7y agoStop BSing and run it with protons, electrons or neutrons. Measure charge distribution in the sensor, track paths in a bubble chamber, call it a day. De Broglie called from afterlife to check if people still run simple experiments.
- tim333 7y ago> They talk about measuring the photon at the slit, collapsing the wave function... but it's never demonstrated! I believe they have done real experiments, Feynman mentions doing it with electrons going through the slit and a light source to make a flash by the slit when the electron passes. If you use short enough wavelength light to tell which slit then the interference goes. But true it was done in a lab sometime, not as a popular demonstration.
- mensetmanusman 7y agoThe double slit experiment has been repeated many times in single-particle (photon, etc.) mode. https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Esperimento-della-doppia-fenditura-effettuato-con-elettroni-Le-immagini-sono-prese-dopo_fig47_262251891 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Esperimento-della-doppia... Here is data showing particle grouping patterns. This forms the basis of the many-particle interference pattern. If you put a detector near the slits to try to measure what passes through, then this pattern does not arise.
- russellbeattie 7y ago"...then this pattern does not arise." Have you ever seen an example of that? There's not a picture on the internet of two groupings that I can find.
- mensetmanusman 7y agoHere is a transition image of the double slit experiment being disturbed to skew the probability distribution function: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Mask-movement-A-mask-is-moved-over-a-double-slit-inset-and-the-resulting-probability_fig1_232608419 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Mask-movement-A-mask-is-...
- russellbeattie 7y agoThanks. Just to be clear, I understand and believe the results of the experiment. That said, none of those pics show two distinct blobs as described by Feynman, et. al. :-)