Category: Quantum mechanics

Wonder what is quantum physics? What a dummy you are! Get these 10 amazing quantum physics facts with pictures for dummies. Your world will never be the same after you take a look at these discoveries:

1. Wave function collapse

In 1803, Thomas Young sent a beam of light through an opaque plate with two slits in it. Instead of seeing the expected two lines on the viewing screen, he saw several lines, as if two waves of light from the two slits had been interfering (overlapping) with each other. It was the beginning of quantum physics. Every dummy should know it! Over the 20th and 21st centuries, it has been proven that not only light, but also individual elementary particles and even some molecules behave as waves – as if they were going through both slits at the same time. However, if you place a sensor at the slits that observes what exactly happens to the particle at that point, and which slit it finally ends up going through, then only two lines will appear on the projection screen, as if the fact of observation (indirect influence) collapses the wave function and the experiment subject behaves as a particle.

In 2014, Tobias Denkmayr and his colleagues split a stream of neutrons into two beams and conducted a series of measurements. It turned out that in certain circumstances, neutrons can be on one path, and their magnetic moment on another.

This proved the quantum paradox dubbed the “Cheshire Cat’s smile,” which is when particles and their properties can be perceived as being located in different areas of space, like the smile separated from the cat in Alice in Wonderland.

The 10 weirdest quantum physics facts

1. Wave function collapse
2. Heisenberg uncertainty principle
3. Meissner effect
4. Superfluidity
5. Quantum tunneling
6. Quantum entanglement
7. Quantum Zeno effect
8. Delayed choice quantum eraser
9. Quantum superposition
10. Quantum Cheshire Cat

From
The Phase. Shattering the Illusion of Reality
by Michael Raduga

(Download free old version (2011) OR buy the newest one (2015) on Amazon)

In 2010, Aaron O’Connell placed a small piece of metal in an opaque vacuum chamber that he cooled to nearly absolute zero. He then sent a pulse of energy to the metal so that it would vibrate. However, the position sensor indicated that the metal was both vibrating a little and still at the same time. This was the first time superposition had been observed in a macroscopic object.

In isolation, when there is no interaction among quantum systems, an object can simultaneously be in an unlimited number of possible positions, as if it were no longer material.

The 10 weirdest quantum physics facts

1. Wave function collapse
2. Heisenberg uncertainty principle
3. Meissner effect
4. Superfluidity
5. Quantum tunneling
6. Quantum entanglement
7. Quantum Zeno effect
8. Delayed choice quantum eraser
9. Quantum superposition
10. Quantum Cheshire Cat

From
The Phase. Shattering the Illusion of Reality
by Michael Raduga

(Download free old version (2011) OR buy the newest one (2015) on Amazon)

In 1999, a group of scientists led by Marlan Scully sent photons through two slits, behind which there was a prism that converted each outgoing photon into a pair of quantum-entangled photons and split them into two paths. The first path sent photons to the main detector. The second path sent photons to a complicated system of reflectors and detectors.

It turned out that if a photon from the second path reached detectors determining which slit it had flown through, then the primary detector would register its paired photon as a particle. But if the photon from the second path reached detectors that didn’t determine which slit it had flown out of, then the main detector would register its paired photon as a wave. Measuring one photon affect its twin, regardless of distance and time, as the secondary system of detectors registered photons after the main one had. It’s as if the future determined the past.

The 10 weirdest quantum physics facts

1. Wave function collapse
2. Heisenberg uncertainty principle
3. Meissner effect
4. Superfluidity
5. Quantum tunneling
6. Quantum entanglement
7. Quantum Zeno effect
8. Delayed choice quantum eraser
9. Quantum superposition
10. Quantum Cheshire Cat

From
The Phase. Shattering the Illusion of Reality
by Michael Raduga

(Download free old version (2011) OR buy the newest one (2015) on Amazon)

In 1989, a group of scientists led by David Wineland observed the speed at which beryllium ions transitioned between atomic levels. It turned out that the very act of measuring the state of the ions slowed their transition between states. At the beginning of the 21st century, a 30x slowdown was achieved in a similar experiment with rubidium atoms.

This all confirms the Quantum Zeno effect, which states that the mere act of measuring the state of an unstable particle slows its rate of decay, and could theoretically halt it.

The 10 weirdest quantum physics facts

1. Wave function collapse
2. Heisenberg uncertainty principle
3. Meissner effect
4. Superfluidity
5. Quantum tunneling
6. Quantum entanglement
7. Quantum Zeno effect
8. Delayed choice quantum eraser
9. Quantum superposition
10. Quantum Cheshire Cat

From
The Phase. Shattering the Illusion of Reality
by Michael Raduga

(Download free old version (2011) OR buy the newest one (2015) on Amazon)