4 ms·

I was trying to think of a way to explain this to a family member a while back who had a background in mechanical engineering. The best example I could think o

I was trying to think of a way to explain this to a family member a while back who had a background in mechanical engineering. The best example I could think of to analogise it were meshed gears. There is no messaging happening between them. When one rotates, the other rotates in the opposite direction at the same exact time because they are interlinked. They are two parts of one connected set. That entangled particles are interlinked in this way shouldn’t be surprising. Having what to us seem to be arbitrary distances between the particles could simply mean that they’re interlinked outside of the three spatial dimensions we’re used to perceiving the universe in - but this last part is just my own understanding and I’m quite happy for someone who knows better to tell me if (and why) it’s wrong.

TeMPOraL 5y ago
> There is no messaging happening between [meshed gears]. Isn't there? Atoms rub against atoms, electric fields interact and transfer forces. The gears communicate by touching, but it happens so fast that it looks instantaneous. This can be experimentally verified by weakening one of the teeth of one gear, and driving some load with that gear set - eventually, the weakened tooth will break off.
- rleigh 5y ago
  There is messaging through physical contact. It occurs at the speed of sound as opposed to the speed of light.
  - redis_mlc 5y ago
    No, physical ("intermolecular") forces are electromagnetic, and the force between atoms is transmitted at the speed of light. Vibration in gears travels at the speed of sound for the material that the gears are made of, but that is not what separates the gears physically from merging at an atomic level.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- headmelted 5y ago
  If there’s a delay, it’s not perceptible to an onlooker, which is probably good enough for an analogy in this case I hope? It would need to be, given that the gears aren’t going to reverse time and break apart into light beams just because I looked at them. Quantum physics doesn’t fit very well into simple examples.

TeMPOraL 5y ago

> There is no messaging happening between [meshed gears]. Isn't there? Atoms rub against atoms, electric fields interact and transfer forces. The gears communicate by touching, but it happens so fast that it looks instantaneous. This can be experimentally verified by weakening one of the teeth of one gear, and driving some load with that gear set - eventually, the weakened tooth will break off.

rleigh 5y ago
There is messaging through physical contact. It occurs at the speed of sound as opposed to the speed of light.
- redis_mlc 5y ago
  No, physical ("intermolecular") forces are electromagnetic, and the force between atoms is transmitted at the speed of light. Vibration in gears travels at the speed of sound for the material that the gears are made of, but that is not what separates the gears physically from merging at an atomic level.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
headmelted 5y ago
If there’s a delay, it’s not perceptible to an onlooker, which is probably good enough for an analogy in this case I hope? It would need to be, given that the gears aren’t going to reverse time and break apart into light beams just because I looked at them. Quantum physics doesn’t fit very well into simple examples.