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As super computers get more and more super, you’d think that eventually we’d be able to calculate the position and interactions of every atom in the universe and be able to accurately predict the future. In fact, this was once a widely held belief in science, until quantum mechanics arrived and put an end to that theory.
Some things in our universe are predictable, and with enough data sometimes even your local weather forecast can be bang on. But with quantum mechanics, there’s absolutely no way to predict what will happen, and since the sub-atomic world plays just as much a part in our daily lives as, say, an incoming cold front, we will never be able to accurately predict how our universe unfolds. So for now the lottery industry can breathe a sigh of relief. [YouTube]
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I do love quantum physics and all its interesting applications
It seems a bit counter-intuitive to me to say that people used to think we just didn’t have enough data to be able to predict things on the quantum level, but it turns out there is simply no way – even though we still don’t have all the data. The way I see it, yes, until we check, from our point of view the cat is either alive or dead – and we have no way of knowing until we check – but from the cat’s point of view it knows very well what state it’s in. Does this not also ring true for quantum mechanics? Just because we can’t know the state of some particle until we look and “force” a state on it, surely the particle always knows it’s own state? And don’t give me that “it’s in all states until we observe it” nonsense, surely we’re just assuming that because we have no way to know what state it actually is in? Surely the whole probability of states thing is literally just because we don’t have enough information about it yet? I would love a link to a clear guide on this because I’m sure I’m very much wrong here, but I haven’t had anyone explain it to me properly yet.
TL;DR: Quantum mechanics is cray, yo.
ahh the cat knows retort lol. allow me to try and explain if i may. you are indeed correct that the cat in the box is flawed, the cat will know if its alive or dead and so the experiment in practical sense is a nonsense. But its only meant as a demonstration of the idea that until something is measured its undetermined.
let me first attempt to explain by saying that saying we must measure the state to make it collapse to one particular state is very egotistical because humans have very little to do with it. interactions with other particles counts as measuring the state. Any interaction with anything else causes it to form a definite state. So yes the cat is measuring its own state and all the air particles hitting the cat are measuring its state and all the particles of the cat bumping into each other are measuring its state. So its not meant literally the cat represents a particle and the closed box represents no interactions or outside influences to make the state become definite it is isolated.
ok that’s the cat out of the way, or maybe out of the bag/box
. but single particles in superpositions of many states do not know their own state they have no definite state until they interact and its not just a lack of data they really are uncertain. the best example of this is an experiment called the double slit experiment. which i can go into more detail in if your interested but it runs along the lines of this.
if you have a beam of light particles heading towards two holes then you assume that the particle goes through one of the holes to get to the other side. now if they go through just one hole we see them come straight out the other side in a cone of light shape from the hole like a spot light. but when they come out of both holes the cones interact and you get stripes of light and dark where the comes overlap. Now if you instead of a beam send just one particle through the holes then it has to only travel through one hole right? so over time if you count up many single particles they would all come out in 2 cones no interaction but they dont they have stripes of light and dark just the same. so one particle is going through both holes as its position is unknown, its in a superposion of states the state of passing through one hole or the state of passing through the other both exist at the same time and if you cover one hole to stop this happening u get back to your single cone again.
brief but hope you understand if not feel free to ask moer or look up the double slit experiment