Quantum Mechanics will blow your mind - the peculiar features of quantum theory!

I've been wanting to create a thread like this for so long, so tonight I spent several hours putting it together, and here we have it! This thread will try to explain the most mysterious and mind-boggling aspects of quantum mechanics in a way most people should be able to understand. It will start off quite boring and factual, however, you can just skip to the good stuff if desired. If you would like to learn more about particle physics and/or nuclear physics first, I suggest reading this thread I made not too long ago, but ignore the last part about hadron-bombs because it is incorrect. To begin with, please consider the following diagram and note how the electron orbits around the nucleus of the atom:
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/31860dfbe266.gif[/atsimg]

It is now known by scientists that electrons can exist as a point charge, or as a wave, depending on the conditions. This is what we call the wave-particle duality. This helps explain why electrons are only allowed to exist in certain orbits, known as energy levels, corresponding to the size of the nucleus - the electron will cancel it's self out or interfere with it's self if it exists in an orbit where the start of the wave doesn't come back around to meet exactly where it started. Thus, electrons create what we call standing waves, they are unable to cancel themselves out and must meet back exactly where they started, therefore there are only several specific obits/energy levels an electron can take on, and they just won't exists in the forbidden energy levels in between these levels. The lowest energy level (n=1) corresponds to one wavelength for the electron and n=2 is two wavelengths and so on.

A photon is discrete wave packet of energy that carries the electromagnetic force - visible light is composed of photons. When a photon strikes an electron, the electron will jump up an energy level, that is, if the photon has an energy greater than or equal to the energy difference of the next level and the current level. The excess energy is emitted as electromagnetic radiation (abbreviated as EMR). If the photon has enough energy, it can knock the electron right off the atom, this is known as the photoelectric effect. Electrons can also suddenly drop energy levels, electrons may even drop 2 or 3 energy levels and release a photon with a frequency proportional to the difference in energy levels.

We are able to determine the different possible energy levels of each element, and how much energy is lost or gained in transition between these energy levels (known as a "quantum leap", in which the electron instantly "teleports" to another energy level) because each element has a unique atomic weight, and therefore a unique set of orbits/energy levels that electrons can posses, and therefore each element has a unique signature, thus, we can analyze the emission spectrum of EMR being released by objects and match it to an element, or to put it another way, we analyze the frequency of the photons beings released by objects to determine their elemental make-up. This is one method we use to determine the composition of the Sun - we analyze the EMR released by it. This process is known as spectroscopy.

I hope I haven't bored you to death so far, because now that we understand (to a degree) how the atomic structure functions, we can begin to analyze the weirder aspects of particles in the quantum realm. Things started to get mysterious when scientists discovered that they could collapse the wave function of an electron simply by observing it. The following experiment, shows that matter isn't as classical mechanics would predict, and it forced us to start thinking about matter as a particle-wave.



When scientists discovered that electrons could form an interference pattern, they tried firing each electron, one by one, to see if something was going on. But eventually, the same interference pattern was formed, so they had to conclude the electrons were acting as a wave whilst the electrons weren't under direct observation, because only waves form interference patterns. However, when they decided to mount a camera next to the slits, hoping to get a definitive answer, they realized that the mystery had only just begun. When the scientists tried to observe the electrons passing through the slits, they started acting like an ordinary object and made only a very predictable 2 slit pattern on the fluorescent screen. The scientists had collapsed the wave function of the electrons, simply by observing them.

When I look at the double-slit experiment in that video, I visualize it like this:[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/4095347c2fc8.gif[/atsimg]
The electron is actually a particle-wave, thus it's position will be spread out in a "cloud" of probable positions. The dot surrounded by circles/waves represents an electron with its position spread out in a spherical cloud of probabilities wide enough to "seep" through both slits at once, thus it then interferes with its self on the other side. Quantum mechanics truly can be mind-boggling. The atoms that make you up are actually 99.999999999% empty space, and the particles that makes up those atoms are semi-existent, popping in and out of existence. The only reason you seem solid, is because the particles are vibrating and popping in and out of existence so quickly, that it creates the illusion of solidity, much like your TV picture seems "solid", when in reality it's a bunch of quickly flashing images. In fact, the elementary particles are probably nothing but vibrating energy (strings?) creating the illusion of particles.

But wait, there's yet another aspect of quantum mechanics that will blow your mind, check out this video:



It is seen that two entangled particles will remain connected in some fashion, no matter how far you move them apart...there always remains a bond between these particles, and information will be relayed between them instantly, this is known as quantum entanglement. Now consider the fact that everything was spawned from one singularity...one could conclude everything in our universe remains entangled in some way...and nothing is really "separate" from the rest...in fact, this universe is an interconnected web of energy, and just like we each create our own local reality as an observer, the collective consciousness manifests our collective reality and the ultimately the reality we will all be bound by. Now, I may be beginning to loose those of you that are highly critical, but I believe this is exactly why the elite want to brainwash us and dumb us down through use of the media so that we loose all track of our true self and our true reality, and become entirely powerless against them - they are essentially shaping reality to their will.

The peculiar features of quantum theory include:

1. The wave property of matter and energy: Any object which obeys quantum theory (e.g. a particle such as an electron) can be in more than one place at once. Its position is ‘smeared out’ into a probability function, which tells us the probability of finding it an any given place when we measure its position;

2. The particle property of energy and matter: when we measure the position of a quantum object, we pin it down, as it were, to a particle-like state - i.e. , previous to our measurement, the object wasn’t really anywhere in ordinary space-time; it only had a probabilistic wave nature; after we measure its position, it gets a real position in ordinary space-time. This is called ‘collapsing the probability
function’ or ‘collapsing the wavefunction’. What happens is that our observation causes its properties to manifest.

3. The observer-dependent universe: The fact that our observation creates the particular manifestation of the reality we are observing, as in point (2).

4. The quantum leap: quantum objects have the property of disappearing from one place and reappearing in another without crossing the intervening distance. An electron moving from one orbital in an atom to another does it in this way.

5. Indeterminacy: The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle states that we cannot measure with arbitrary accuracy the position and the momentum of any quantum object at the same time. The more accurately we measure the position of an electron, the less accurately must we measure its momentum. Position and momentum are a conjugate pair of variables, and Heisenberg’s equation also shows that there are other conjugate pairs of variables, like energy and time.

6. Non-locality: The collapse of the probability function caused by our observation implies that the observer-dependency is non-local in space; this non-locality is further born out by the experiments of Alain Aspect, and John Bell’s interpretation of them. In these experiments it was demonstrated that if two photons are fired out from the same source in opposite directions, and we polarize one of them, the other gets polarized too. Somehow, they remain connected, even thought they are traveling apart at the speed of light.

The above excerpt was taken from Magick and Physics by Dave Lee.


Throughout this post, I should have briefly covered most of those above points. I hope you got something out of it...and so I'll leave you with one last video I find relevant to this thread:



[edit on 10/5/10 by CHA0S]

Most excellent thread. S&F!

Please don't equate lack of response to lack of interest. There is a lot of info to digest in there.

My brain is atom-sized and I'm striving to add something worthwhile but need to review all that delicious data.

reply to post by kinda kurious

Most excellent thread. S&F!

Thank you!

Please don't equate lack of response to lack of interest. There is a lot of info to digest in there.

Yeah, I realize this is a bit more technical than most threads, which normally means less response. I'm not too worried, we'll see where it goes.

Excellent job of providing a simplified explanation of some very difficult concepts.

It really is amazing how the quantum world and the Newton/Einstein world we are so used to conceiving appear so diametrically opposed. In spite of that, they both can have theoritical "proofs" to both confirm and deny each other.

From that aspect, it is very much like the "believers" and "debunkers" on ATS itself!

ill respond wile im no ware near undertstanding this stuff its better then the scifi stuff thats usaly posted.
because its real .

Chaos


You are brilliant!


I am finishing my dissertation now for my PhD in Quantum Metaphysics

So I can say you are on the money!!!

Great work!

S and F

/:/:/:/:/:/

reply to post by Truth1000

Excellent job of providing a simplified explanation of some very difficult concepts.

Appreciated.

From that aspect, it is very much like the "believers" and "debunkers" on ATS itself!

haha...I guess, but IMO, most of the science I'm discussing here is fairly solid stuff...

reply to post by HighDefinitionFilms

I am finishing my dissertation now for my PhD in Quantum Metaphysics

So I can say you are on the money!!!

Sweet, it's nice to know I'm not just stabbing around in the dark! Thank you for the nice reply.

Chaos,

I did not mean that statement toward your work, which I again applaud.

My statement was in reference to how some equations and experiments appear to completely affirm the Newton/Einstein theory of the huniverse, while there are likewise similar equations and experiments that demonstrate that quantum mechanics does result in predictable results.

THIS is what I was likening to the firmly held beliefs of people on opposite sides of arguments, stubbornly selecting which view of the world they will support, while becoming aggravated by those on the opposing side for being equally entrenched with their belief system.

I truly appreciate your efforts in creating this thread. Still, there is the concept that when three theoretical physicists discuss a topic, 14 different views will be discussed!

reply to post by Truth1000

My statement was in reference to how some equations and experiments appear to completely affirm the Newton/Einstein theory of the huniverse, while there are likewise similar equations and experiments that demonstrate that quantum mechanics does result in predictable results.

That's because both models of the universe are correct in their own respect...what scientists are currently trying to do, is build a "theory of everything"...where they can link together all these different theories and create a unified theory which adequately explains nature and reality...but we are still missing several key pieces of information that will allow physicists to achieve this...particularly things like gravity and the so called "dark matter" need explanation...

Wikipedia says the following about the "theory of everything":

The theory of everything (TOE) is a putative theory of theoretical physics that fully explains and links together all known physical phenomena, and, ideally, has predictive power for the outcome of any experiment that could be carried out in principle. Initially, the term was used with an ironic connotation to refer to various overgeneralized theories. For example, a great-grandfather of Ijon Tichy—a character from a cycle of Stanisław Lem's science fiction stories of 1960s—was known to work on the "General Theory of Everything". Physicist John Ellis[1] claims to have introduced the term into the technical literature in an article in Nature in 1986.[2] Over time, the term stuck in popularizations of quantum physics to describe a theory that would unify or explain through a single model the theories of all fundamental interactions of nature.

There was also a great series hosted by Michio Kaku covering the theory of every and all the possible origins of our universe, it was quite interesting, I'd suggest it if you haven't seen it. No idea what it was called though.

EDIT: There was a story a while ago called Surfer dude stuns physicists with theory of everything. That was quite interesting, however my search just revealed two articles that may prove him wrong.
Surfer's Theory of Everything may be dismissed as invalid
Surfer Dude's Theory Of Everything Refuted, Mathematician Says

[edit on 10/5/10 by CHA0S]

Thank you CHAOS excellent thread l'm gonna go straight to your next lesson
Nuclear phyics prob way out there give it a go though

S&F

Nuclear phyics prob way out there give it a go though

Well, it's not really...that thread was basically about the LHC, which meant I got into particle physics a bit...but the nuclear physics part is pretty sloppy...the whole thread is sloppy really, this one is a lot better.

I just found this short playlist of videos on YouTube, and they seem extremely well made and very interesting. I only watched a small portion, as I have to get to sleep now, but they really help you visualize some of the things I've covered here, and they also cover a few things I missed.







Enjoy, I'll be back later.

This is great stuff, nice post. It sounds like you've been reading

Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness Are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe by Robert Lanza, if you haven't, I suggest you check it out. It's a great book and get into all of this in detail to tie together his 7 principles:


Lanza's theory of biocentrism has seven principles:

1. What we perceive as reality is a process that involves our consciousness. An "external" reality, if it existed, would by definition have to exist in space. But this is meaningless, because space and time are not absolute realities but rather tools of the human and animal mind.
2. Our external and internal perceptions are inextricably intertwined. They are different sides of the same coin and cannot be divorced from one another.
3. The behavior of subatomic particles, indeed all particles and objects, is inextricably linked to the presence of an observer. Without the presence of a conscious observer, they at best exist in an undetermined state of probability waves.
4. Without consciousness, "matter" dwells in an undetermined state of probability. Any universe that could have preceded consciousness only existed in a probability state.
5. The structure of the universe is explainable only through biocentrism. The universe is fine-tuned for life, which makes perfect sense as life creates the universe, not the other way around. The "universe" is simply the complete spatio-temporal logic of the self.
6. Time does not have a real existence outside of animal-sense perception. It is the process by which we perceive changes in the universe.
7. Space, like time, is not an object or a thing. Space is another form of our animal understanding and does not have an independent reality. We carry space and time around with us like turtles with shells. Thus, there is no absolute self-existing matrix in which physical events occur independent of life.

en.wikipedia.org...

Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Theory, Quantum Metaphysics, Quantum Philosophy.......all topics that lured me to this forum.

I can't get enough of it. I wish I could learn at a Uni but most of these subjects require a substantial grasp of high level mathematics & matrices, which I don't posses. :/

Truly excellent thread!
I've been interested in quantum physics for many years and have read many books, magazine articles and websites pertaining to the field. It is, in my opinion, the most fascinating branch of science. And while the mathematics involved in quantum mechanics can be daunting to a non-mathematician, the basic principles can be understood by anyone, with a bit of study.

Thanks for assembling all this material for others to enjoy and learn about this subject.

For anyone interested in dark matter they might profit from turning their attention to Orgone. Here I have a video that might be of interest to some of you about why their are holes in these theories, I tend to speculate the government has some involvement in the muddying of these waters for obvious reasons I'm not going to get into for the sake of time.

reply to post by careface

Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Theory, Quantum Metaphysics, Quantum Philosophy.......all topics that lured me to this forum.

Yes, it was similar topics that lured me to this forum, I find this stuff extremely intriguing.

I can't get enough of it. I wish I could learn at a Uni but most of these subjects require a substantial grasp of high level mathematics & matrices, which I don't posses. :/

Haha, yeah, mathematics has always been my weakest area...but mathematics isn't everything, and I see no point in remembering a thousand different equations and numbers when you can look them up on demand.

I try to ignore all information that I don't really require, you'll probably notice not many names, if any, were mentioned in the opening post. It was purely focused on the scientific concepts at hand.

Star & flagged

Also, tagged for my later perusal

Originally posted by CHA0S
However, when they decided to mount a camera next to the slits, hoping to get a definitive answer, they realized that the mystery had only just begun. When the scientists tried to observe the electrons passing through the slits, they started acting like an ordinary object and made only a very predictable 2 slit pattern on the fluorescent screen. The scientists had collapsed the wave function of the electrons, simply by observing them.

The source for your videos is the movie "What the bleep so we know" which has taken real science and distorted some scientific truths and facts into exaggerated claims and pseudoscientific nonsense. If you wanted to discuss the real science of quantum mechanics there are much better sources. The wave function doesn't always collapse when observed, it depends on how the observation is made:

Double-slit experiment

It is a widespread misunderstanding that, when two slits are open but a detector is added to the experiment to determine which slit a photon has passed through, then the interference pattern no longer forms and the experimental apparatus yields two simple patterns, one from each slit, superposed without interference. Such a result would be obtained only if the results of two experiments were superposed in which either one or the other slit is closed. However, there are many other methods to determine whether a photon passed through a slit, for instance by placing an atom at the position of each slit and monitoring whether one of these atoms is influenced by a photon passing it. In general in such experiments the interference pattern will be changed but not be completely wiped out. Interesting experiments of this latter kind have been performed with photons[7] and with neutrons.[8]

If you want to use "What the bleep do we know" as a source, this thread belongs in the Metaphysics forum and not the science forum, and that movie has as much pseudoscience as science, and it's hard to tell where one ends and the other begins for laypeople:

What the Bleep Do We Know!?

New Age community reaction

What the Bleep Do We Know!? has been described as "a kind of New Age answer to The Passion of the Christ and other films that adhere to traditional religious teachings."[10] It offers alternative spirituality views characteristic of New Age philosophy, including critiques of traditional religion's moral values. The movie was well received at film festivals where New Age adherents are demographically strong, for example Sedona, Arizona.[10][16]

Academic reaction

Scientists who have reviewed What the Bleep Do We Know!? have described distinct assertions made in the film as pseudoscience.[17] Amongst the concepts in the film that have been challenged are assertions that water molecules can be influenced by thought (as popularized by Masaru Emoto),[3] that meditation can reduce violent crime rates,[8] and that quantum physics implies that "consciousness is the ground of all being." The film was also discussed in a letter published in Physics Today that challenges how physics is taught, saying teaching fails to "expose the mysteries physics has encountered [and] reveal the limits of our understanding." In the letter, the authors write "the movie illustrates the uncertainty principle with a bouncing basketball being in several places at once. There's nothing wrong with that. It's recognized as pedagogical exaggeration. But the movie gradually moves to quantum 'insights' that lead a woman to toss away her antidepressant medication, to the quantum channeling of Ramtha, the 35,000-year-old Atlantis god, and on to even greater nonsense." It went on to say that "Most laypeople cannot tell where the quantum physics ends and the quantum nonsense begins, and many are susceptible to being misguided," and that "a physics student may be unable to convincingly confront unjustified extrapolations of quantum mechanics," a shortcoming which the authors attribute to the current teaching of quantum mechanics, in which "we tacitly deny the mysteries physics has encountered."[5]

So what's the topic: Real quantum physics, or metaphysics? When using "what the bleep do we know" as a source, as that quote says, "Most laypeople cannot tell where the quantum physics ends and the quantum nonsense begins".

If your topic is really quantum mechanics, you picked a really lousy source for your videos.



[edit on 11-5-2010 by Arbitrageur]

reply to post by Arbitrageur

The source for your videos is the movie "What the bleep so we know" which has taken real science and distorted some scientific truths and facts into exaggerated claims and pseudoscientific nonsense.

Great movie IMO, whether they exaggerated parts and included a few silly things they really shouldn't have, it still contains pure golden information that has been invaluable in developing my understanding of reality and consciousness. I used What The Bleep videos because they are done in an extremely entertaining way whilst still explaining in adequate detail the concepts I needed to get across.

The wave function doesn't always collapse when observed, it depends on how the observation is made:

That is extremely interesting...I had heard a little about this, but haven't really looked into it. It seems a less direct form of observation wont completely collapse the wave-function, but it will influence it, am I correct?

If you want to use "What the bleep do we know" as a source, this thread belongs in the Metaphysics forum and not the science forum

I was actually considering putting this in the metaphysics section...but the science section is much more fitting IMO. However, this is not meant to be a completely scientific and mundane thread...this is a conspiracy forum after all...I wanted to emphasize the mysterious aspects of quantum physics...and connect those aspects with consciousness and the observer and really emphasize that magical aspect of quantum mechanics where we can each create our own reality. I tried to keep a nice balance between fact and fiction so that whilst I wasn't misinforming people, I was still leading them into what I find to be very intriguing and important topics.

Amongst the concepts in the film that have been challenged are assertions that water molecules can be influenced by thought (as popularized by Masaru Emoto),[3] that meditation can reduce violent crime rates,[8] and that quantum physics implies that "consciousness is the ground of all being."

I believe water molecules can be influenced by thought, mass group meditation can reduce crime rates, and consciousness is the ground of all being...

[edit on 11/5/10 by CHA0S]