Thursday 8 May 2008

Quantum Physics Experiments

Check out the May/June 2008 issue of SEED magazine. There is an article titled The Reality Tests which has a pretty good, but very brief, overview of quantum theory and mentions Bohm and several others. The kicker is that a group in Vienna has actually experimentally proven that we create the world just by looking at it. While the experiments were not described in detail, they confirmed that photons' "polarizations didn't exist before being measured."

The group then talked about real-world objects and concluded (from some experiments not described at all in the article):

... it does not matter how many particles are around, or how large an object is, quantum mechanics always holds true. The reason we see our world as we do us because of what we use to observe it. The human body is a just barely adequate measuring device. Quantum mechanics does not always wash itself out [i.e. the large number of particles "are in constant interaction and their environment serves to 'decohere' the quantum world -- eliminate superpositions -- to create the classical one we observer"], but to observe its effects for larger and larger objects we would need more and more accurate measurement devices. We just do not have the sensitivity to observe the quantum effects around us. In essence we do create the classical world we perceive ...


Not much detail in the article but very interesting nonetheless.

10 comments:

Anthony Peake said...

KEN: Well spotted. Do you have any more details on this?

Robin said...

"The human body is a just barely adequate measuring device"...
Amen!

Karl Le Marcs said...

Ken and Tony: Here is the FULL article from SEED magazine in pdf format.

The Reality Tests

I'm too good to you, I really am.

*mutters to self as goes for venture into the fridge*

ken said...

Yes, you are, Karl. Thank you for being so magnanimous. I had looked on SEED's website but it appeared sorely out of date. I did not think to look for the author's website.

*wonders what the inside of Karl's fridge looks like*

Karl Le Marcs said...

Ken: You're very welcome as ever my friend.

*returns to the delights beheld by the frigidaire*

Anthony Peake said...

KARL: What would we do without you!!!!

KEN: Karl's fridge is a fascinating one. It was designed by Schrodinger & Everett, those famous white goods experts. In their design the light is both on and off when you close the fridge door. Nifty!

Robin said...

*giggles* funny Tony!

Hurlyburly said...

Guys...

I think my cat's dead...

Karl Le Marcs said...

Hurlyburly: *shakes head*
Surely you can do better than that mate!!!!

Karl Le Marcs said...

If observation really does create the world we perceive then "Tony's Round" remains the stuff of Quantum Probability Function. Observed occasionally in isolation but unrecorded owing to Heinsenberg's Uncertainty Principle which states, "if you do know how much Tony will spend on a round, then you cannot also know which pub it will happen in."

I Thank You
*bows*
I am here all week.

Karl L Le Marcs
Quantum Comedy
- The two laughs experiment !

*smile*

For more (GOSH NO!) Quantum Comedy, see my old post:

A Super Position To Drive Through...