Category: Uncategorized

TWO WORLDS. “Classical physics is causal; complete knowledge of the past allows computation of the future. Likewise, complete knowledge of the future allows precise computation of the past. Not so in quantum physics. Objects in quantum physics are neither particles nor waves; they are a strange combination of both. Given complete knowledge of the past, we can make only probabilistic predictions of the future.” https://lnkd.in/ebDJ4MfS View in LinkedIn

MICRO TO MACRO. “But if everything is quantum then superpositions at the microscopic level become “amplified” to the macro level, and there should thus, for instance, be apparatus pointers in various positions at the same time. Clearly this contradicts ordinary experience.” https://lnkd.in/eauD5rnp View in LinkedIn

INTERFERENCE PATTERNS. “For our purposes, superpositions may be taken to roughly correspond to objects being at different places at the same time. Such superpositions are essential at the microscopic level, e.g., in the explanation of the interference pattern seen in the famous double slit experiment.” https://lnkd.in/eauD5rnp View in LinkedIn

DEFINITION. “Superposition is the ability of a quantum system to be in multiple states at the same time until it is measured. In the double-slit experiment, “Each photon not only goes through both slits; it simultaneously takes every possible trajectory en route to the photographic plate.” https://lnkd.in/ejXRbmr6 View in LinkedIn

QUANTUM MEASUREMENT PROBLEM. “Stated briefly, the problem is that if everything, including measurement apparatuses, is quantum (and correctly described by Schrödinger’s equation), then there ought to be superpositions in the measurement outcomes.” https://lnkd.in/eauD5rnp View in LinkedIn

FLY IN THE OINTMENT. “For all its impressive predictive and practical successes, quantum mechanics cannot account for the most basic fact of experiments – namely that they have definite outcomes. This is known in the literature as the quantum measurement problem.” https://lnkd.in/eauD5rnp View in LinkedIn

NOT A DOGMATIST. “I argue below that Bohr is best understood as not being a quantum fundamentalist – neither in the ontological nor in the epistemological sense.” https://lnkd.in/eauD5rnp View in LinkedIn

NUANCED VIEW. “At least on the face of it, Niels Bohr’s conception of quantum mechanics stands in contrast to quantum fundamentalism. Thus, Bohr insisted on the necessity of the concepts of classical physics in the description of quantum phenomena.” https://lnkd.in/eauD5rnp View in LinkedIn

Lovely tomato summer salad with peppery nasturtium flowers. View in LinkedIn

BOHR’S FATHER, “Christian, became a professor of physiology at the University of Copenhagen and was nominated twice for the Nobel Prize. https://lnkd.in/eMqHUjMd View in LinkedIn