The Speculist: Prove the Universe is Weird

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Prove the Universe is Weird

Hey, quantum weirdness is great fun to read about, but how many of us have ever gotten to experience it first hand at home?

Well, now thanks to Scientific American, we can:

Do-It-Yourself Quantum Eraser

Using readily available equipment, you can carry out a home experiment that illustrates one of the weirdest effects in quantum mechanics

Notoriously, the theory of quantum mechanics reveals a fundamental weirdness in the way the world works. Commonsense notions at the very heart of our everyday perceptions of reality turn out to be violated: contradictory alternatives can coexist, such as an object following two different paths at the same time; objects do not simultaneously have precise positions and velocities; and the properties of objects and events we observe can be subject to an ineradicable randomness that has nothing to do with the imperfection of our tools or our eyesight.

Gone is the reliable world in which atoms and other particles travel around like well-behaved billiard balls on the green baize of reality. Instead they behave (sometimes) like waves, becoming dispersed over a region and capable of crisscrossing to form interference patterns.

Yet all this strangeness still seems remote from ordinary life. Quantum effects are most evident when tiny systems are involved, such as electrons held within the confines of an atom. You might know in the abstract that quantum phenomena underlie most modern technologies and that various quantum oddities can be demonstrated in laboratories, but the only way to see them in the home is on science shows on television. Right? Not quite.

We will show you how to set up an experiment that illustrates what is known as quantum erasure. This effect involves one of the oddest features of quantum mechanics--the ability to take actions that change our basic interpretation of what happened in past events.

If the article proves too long for you, check out the nifty slide show. Would love to hear back from anyone who tries this out!

Comments

So, does this mean that the universe isn't real until we look, or does it mean that the universe is ambiguous until certainty is forced upon it?

So, does this mean that the universe isn't real until we look...

Don't be silly. It means the universe isn't real until I look.

..it means you're not real as long as you ARE looking. Now stop collapsing the waveform and let the universe get back to propogating a superposition of states.

(ENTER EL JEFE DOWNSTAGE LEFT, SINGING AND WALTZING WITH AN IMAGINARY PARTNER)

EL JEFE (sung):"Wonderful, wonderful, Co-pen-ha-gen..."

(EXIT EL JEFE DOWNSTAGE RIGHT, CONTINUING TO SING AND DANCE)

Okay, Jef. I'm convinced...the universe is definitely weird.

So it's time for me to let the cat out of the box?

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