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One of the most famous experiments in quantum physics, which first showed how particles can bizarrely behave like waves, has now been carried out on the largest molecules ever. Researchers have sent molecules containing either 58 or 114 atoms through the so-called "double-slit experiment," showing that they cause an interference pattern that can only be explained if the particles act like waves of water, rather than tiny marbles.
Originally posted by arpgme
reply to post by Bob Sholtz
Woah, but if even the macro world incorporates quantum physics (molecules, diamonds) then that means that all of us should be in super-position, even ourselves... Or is it because we are self aware that we are not?
So if I am in one room and no one is observing the other, it is in super position, right? What determines in what way the actual position will be? Why my room always look the same when I look at it?
One does not get an answer to the question, 'What is the state after collision?' but only to the question, 'How probable is a given effect of the collision?' From the standpoint of our quantum mechanics, there is no quantity which causally fixes the effect of a collision in an individual event. Should we hope to discover such properties later ... and determine [them] in individual events? ... I myself am inclined to renounce determinism in the atomic world, but that is a philosophical question for which physical arguments alone do not set standards.
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Quantum decoherence gives the appearance of wave function collapse (the reduction of the physical possibilities into a single possibility as seen by an observer) and justifies the framework and intuition of classical physics as an acceptable approximation: decoherence is the mechanism by which the classical limit emerges out of a quantum starting point and it determines the location of the quantum-classical boundary.
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Decoherence represents a challenge for the practical realization of quantum computers, since they are expected to rely heavily on the undisturbed evolution of quantum coherences. Simply put; they require that coherent states be preserved and that decoherence is managed, in order to actually perform quantum computation.
Originally posted by VonDoomen
reply to post by jonnywhite
"This is addressed by Dave Nelson in the comments list. Observation is not what causes the wave function to collapse, but decoherence from outside interference"
So, in order to measure something, we have to shoot a beam of light, or electrons, at it. this is the outside interference that causes the object to be measure to collapse?
Is that the gist of what you are saying?
Originally posted by unityemissions
Originally posted by VonDoomen
reply to post by jonnywhite
"This is addressed by Dave Nelson in the comments list. Observation is not what causes the wave function to collapse, but decoherence from outside interference"
So, in order to measure something, we have to shoot a beam of light, or electrons, at it. this is the outside interference that causes the object to be measure to collapse?
Is that the gist of what you are saying?
I would very much like to know this as well.
Always seemed off, the "observer creates reality" pseudo-science garble.