3 ms·

Thank you. This is also the reason why faster than light 'travel' can occur, if it doesn't transmit information. Entanglement is slightly mysterious though as

• yummyfajitas 18y ago
  The physical mechanism is that quantum mechanics governs a probability distribution (the "wave" in "wave-particle duality") on configuration space, not "physical" space. Imagine you have two particles in 1 space dimension. The first particle has a position x (1 real number), the second particle has a position y (1 real number). "Physical space" would be the set of real numbers (R^1), while configuration space is the set of pairs of real numbers (x,y) (this set is R^2). The first number in the pair represents the position of particle 1, the second the position of particle 2. An entangled state is simply a probability distribution on R^2 which is not a product state (i.e. P(x,y) != P_1(x) P_2(y)). This means that knowledge of the position of particle 1 gives you (possibly incomplete) information about the position of particle 2. One example of this is "probability 1/2 that x=0, y=0, 1/2 that x=1, y=1". The minute you know x, you know y. That's what entanglement is. What makes it weird is the idea that "knowing x" (measuring it) changes things. An explanation of this is trickier. Still understandable in principle (not just 'follow the math'), but too long for this post.
  • ericb 18y ago
    >> too long for this post. How about another post, then? :-)
• deleted 18y ago
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