Intro + CRAZY Quantum Mechanics - EVERYTHING You See Is NOT Real

Hello. My name is Mike. I am a Biochemistry major at the University of Michigan.



Since I can't post where I wanted to, I believe my first post should be something interesting.

Here's why everything you see in your everyday life may just not be the actual thing.

Let's get to it.

Quantum Mechanics is probably the most interesting field of science that can illuminate ideas and concepts and our relation to the world.

Einstein didn't believe in quantum mechanics/physics.. since he believed everything in the world should be predictable, and refused to believe in unpredictable forces.

Heisenberg differed, however, and introduced the uncertainty principle.. that electrons don't have a definite 100% accurate location around atoms.

The quantum world breaks all of our rules of physics. Let's talk about the Double Slit Experiment.

I will post a link to the video so things are a little more clear.

Electrons can behave as small "marbles". That is, when atoms are shot through an accelerator through a board with two slits and a receiver at the other end to record the location of where the atoms hit the board.

This experiment includes an accelerator, a board with one slit, a board with two slits (just small vertical openings), and a receiver that records what happens when electrons are rocketed through either 1 or 2 slit boards.

When rocketed through 1 slit, electrons act as they should. Like marbles. The pattern that is revealed when electrons are sent through 1 slit confirm a "particle" or "marble" pattern.

Think of a paintball gun.. where you are shooting paintballs at a cardboard box held in front of a wall, but the cardboard box has a vertical opening in the middle. If you shoot the paintballs, the wall will reveal paint that came through that opening.

Fine. Makes sense.

Now, we have electrons shot through a single slit creating a single line pattern. If instead we had sent "waves", in the form of water, for example, through the single slit.. it would create a similar pattern because the water only goes through one of the slits. Still makes sense.

If we add a second slit and send a wave (like water) through both slits, because of the nature of a wave (maximums/minimums interacting with each other) it creates what's called an interference pattern. Still makes sense.

Here's where it gets WEIRD.

So.. electrons sent through one slit.. regular pattern. Waves through one slit.. regular pattern.. waves through two slits.. interference pattern.

You would expect that if you sent electrons through the two slit board, you would see a result of two bands. Like the paintball analogy, add another slit to the cardboard piece. On the wall behind the cardboard, if you shot paintballs, you would see two bands.

When scientists shot electrons through the two slit board, it revealed an INTERFERENCE pattern! The electron was acting as a wave!

What's that, you say? Electrons have a particle-wave duality that allows them to act this way? Okay, continue reading, because that's not the crazy part.

Although scientists weren't really sure why this happened, they tried again. They shot electrons out individually, one by one, because they thought they might be hitting each other when they passed through the slits causing an interference wave pattern. SO they did. Same thing happened.. interference.

They decided to put a recording device right next to the slits just before the electrons hit the slits to see what was really happening. That's all it was. A RECORDING DEVICE. A CAMERA. Not touching anything.

When they shot the electrons with the recording device in place, the electrons acted NORMALLY. They revealed a pattern that was in line with the theory (just two bands) INSTEAD of an interference pattern.

The electrons were able to tell that something was recording them, so they acted DIFFERENTLY. For some reason, its wave function COLLAPSED.

Scientists are baffled. They have absolutely no idea why or how this happened.

How can electrons KNOW when they are being watched?

And what kinds of implications does this have?

Do our eyes, a recording/observing device, do the same thing? Does that mean that everything we see is a result of our vision collapsing wave functions? What do things REALLY look like?

Take a look:

www.youtube.com...

Mike

reply to post by Moneer189


That was interesting,
congratulations on making it to such a wonderful college!

this has been known for many years and is a scientific 'anomaly' giving proof that science does not yet fully understand the fabric of the universe yet.

Add various recent findings, which are thankfully accelerating, probably due to universal forces, giving more dots to join in the universal machination hypotheses and perhaps humanity will be able to strain the soup of knowledge and retain the facts sufficiently to make the required realizations for the survival of humanity.

A new and interesting find here:
Tevatron accelerator yields hints of new particle

"There's a 0.1% chance that this is a statistical fluke," he said. "Other than that possibility that lingers, this is the most exciting new phyiscs we've learned about in my lifetime." If it is in fact true, Dr Hooper believes that the mystery particle represents an undiscovered "fundamental force". "We'd essentially be saying there's a new force of nature being communicated by the particle. We know that there's four forces: electromagnetism, gravity, and the strong and weak nuclear forces. This would be the fifth; every freshman physics class would have to change their textbooks."

Wow, would definitely like to hear more of what you've got to say. What a fascinating first post.

Welcome to ATS anyway mate! Don't let the Christians scare you off.

M Go Blue!

Mike I can't wait to see what you post when you are able. I got a great laugh from this one.Welcome and I really hope that you stick around. The more I try to learn about quantum mechanics , the more my brain gets bent. It's the wierdest thing I have ever tried to get my head around. Thanks for the yuck.Wish I could give you a star but you do get a flag.

hi mike,i remember seeing this on tv quite some time ago,and to sum it all up in laymans terms ive taken an example from I ROBOT where the robots in a confined and dark space will huddle together...i think on a basic level of understanding could be a probable output imo..

Here's what a Youtube commenter said about it:

"The point is it isn't possible to measure electron's position or velocity without interacting with it and thus altering its state"

Which seems to be the conclusion here, but what I found odd is that what was watching the electrons was just a small piece of equipment, not a living thing actively observing.

Sort of gives me a new perspective on Schrodinger's Cat.

And how bout the proverbial tree falling in a forest and no one hearing it. Guess it just might not be making a sound at all

The reason particles act the way they do is because they aren't real.

We are in a simulation.

A digital one, at that.

The quantization of everything is the minimum step size/clock frequency of the system running the simulation.

The Planck Time = 10^−43 Seconds.
The Planck Length = 1.616252(81)×10^−35 metres.

Other minima can be calculated from these.

If it looks like pixels...

The role we play in this universe as observers is much more phenomenal than people recognize. By being alive as the living part of the universe we consequently have made the whole universe alive. Everything is alive because we exist and we are part of everything.

Welcome fellow Michigander [-ganian?]. Go Blue (Someday? Again? Maybe? Please?)

Great post, this is a very interesting concept.
If everything is plank scale energy wave in space/time, it would make sense too.

Thank you guys for all the comments!

I can't wait until I have time to post about all the interesting topics I have heard about.

Can someone please explain to me what these flags are, and the numbers next to my posts?

Originally posted by Hawking
Here's what a Youtube commenter said about it:

"The point is it isn't possible to measure electron's position or velocity without interacting with it and thus altering its state"

Which seems to be the conclusion here, but what I found odd is that what was watching the electrons was just a small piece of equipment, not a living thing actively observing.

Because so many people claimed that measurement collapsed the function they did a different experiment.

The Quantum Erasure.

They use the camera/measurement device. Than after the experiment is complete they delete the information.

This doesn't collapse the wave function.

Proving, measurement does not collapse the wave function, but the information does.

Originally posted by Jezus

Originally posted by Hawking
Here's what a Youtube commenter said about it:

"The point is it isn't possible to measure electron's position or velocity without interacting with it and thus altering its state"

Which seems to be the conclusion here, but what I found odd is that what was watching the electrons was just a small piece of equipment, not a living thing actively observing.

Because so many people claimed that measurement collapsed the function they did a different experiment.

The Quantum Erasure.

They use the camera/measurement device. Than after the experiment is complete they delete the information.

This doesn't collapse the wave function.

Proving, measurement does not collapse the wave function, but the information does.

Until they did the Delayed Quantum Erasure experiment.

After photons already hit the target, erasing the information can STILL return an interference pattern.

The quantum erasure apparently gave scientists a black and white answer, yet the delayed quantum erasure brings back the unknown aspect.

watched this some time ago

It's pretty weird stuff...it would mean that everything's just waving around until we look at it and the electrons go: " Act normal! " to each other and then continue waving......right? oO

reply to post by Hawking


A tree falling in the forest with no ears around does not create sound!
Sound is just our perception of the vibrations our ears pick up. The sound is in our head.

A falling tree will create vibrations, but with no one around to hear it, there is no "sound"

Originally posted by VonDoomen
reply to post by Hawking

 

A tree falling in the forest with no ears around does not create sound!
Sound is just our perception of the vibrations our ears pick up. The sound is in our head.

A falling tree will create vibrations, but with no one around to hear it, there is no "sound"

I disagree, you say the tree does not create sound because sound is just our perception of the vibrations our ears pick up. I don't think so. Sounds are, according to wikipedia: a mechanical wave that is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas.

The wave is still created by the tree falling, is does therefore "create" sound, to quote you.



On the quantum physics part, it sounds to me that the camera, or the eyes, or whatever is interacting with the electrons is acting like some kind of a magnet? Would that be possible? When you think about it, our eyes are sensors, why wouldn't they also behave like some kind of a magnet?

Total speculation until I get my hands on a particle accelerator and study physics for a few years, but oh well...

Stupid question:

How is the recording device recieving that information? Photons impacting the CCD? How do photons and electrons react with each other? With no recording device, photons in the vicinity should be inert. The recording device might possibly act as a vacuum that sucks in photons thus causing an unstable environment through which electrons must pass. But then again, I don't know a thing about what I'm saying.

Ahh if only all threads on this site were this interesting...

This is so much better than "guess what this democrat/republican said"

or "check out this video of fuzzy lights in the sky"

Glad to have you with us, Mike!