Redefining reality's rules

[Watchman]

Here's something for you intellectual types:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

New York Times

Quantum Stew: How Physicists Are Redefining
Reality's Rules

By GEORGE JOHNSON

Struggling to understand the strange implications of modern physics, readers in the 1930's and 40's turned to a popular children's book for adults called "Mr. Tompkins in Wonderland" by the physicist George Gamow. In a series of dreams, Mr. Tompkins finds himself in surreal surroundings where the constants of nature have been changed so that matter behaves in ways that defy common sense.

In one dream, a number known as Planck's constant, which governs the intensity of quantum theory's perplexing effects, is cranked up so high that ordinary objects behave like elementary particles, which have the curious ability to act like both hard little kernels and ethereal waves. Things as large as billiard balls suddenly behave like electrons, spreading out all over the table, following many different paths at once. A visit to a quantum pool hall leaves poor Mr. Tompkins feeling drunk. The reason "quantum elephantism" doesn't really happen, the book explains, is that Planck's constant is extremely small, affecting only the tiniest objects - electrons and photons but not billiard balls.

But nothing involving quantum theory is ever so clear-cut. Recent experiments are demonstrating that quantum weirdness is not limited to the atomic realm. In late September, a team of Danish physicists reported that a phenomenon called quantum entanglement - the "spooky action at a distance" that troubled Einstein - can affect not just individual particles but clusters of trillions of atoms. And last week, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for experiments showing how quantum mechanics can be exploited to make a couple of thousand atoms crowd together into a single superatom - what the scientists called "a kind of smeared-out, overlapping stew."

Experiment by experiment, the abstractions of quantum theory are taking on substance, impinging on phenomena closer to home. Physicists are developing a new finesse - getting a feel for quantum mechanics by playing with atoms the way their predecessors mastered Newtonian physics by fooling around with swinging pendulums or marbles rolling down inclined planes.

The practice is paying off with a deeper understanding of reality's rules. In Mr. Tompkins's time, the difference between the mysterious quantum realm and the hard-edged world of everyday life was assumed to be simply a matter of size. Much beyond the magnitude of an atom, as quantum effects faded, objects took on definite positions in space and time. In recent years the situation has revealed itself as somewhat more subtle. Whether an object is dominated by quantum fuzziness has less to do with how big it is than with how well it can be shielded from outside disturbances - tiny vibrations, bombarding air molecules or even particles of light.

Larger things are indeed harder to isolate from the roiling environment - hence the predictable behavior of billiard balls. But with their delicate touch, physicists are steadily bringing the quantum ambiguities further into the macroscopic domain.

Consider the case of quantum entanglement. A subatomic particle can spin clockwise or counterclockwise like a top - but with a quantum twist. As long as it remains isolated from its environment, it lingers in a state of limbo, rotating both clockwise and counterclockwise at the same time. Only when it is measured or otherwise disturbed does it randomly snap into focus, assuming one state or the other. "And" becomes "either/or."

Stranger still, two subatomic particles can be linked so that they must rotate in opposite directions. Force one to spin clockwise and the other instantly begins spinning counterclockwise, no matter how far they are separated in space.

In the past, experimenters had entangled two photons this way, and last year, in a major leap, they quantum mechanically tethered four atoms together. The recent excitement came when physicists at the University of Aarhus in Denmark reported in the Sept. 27 issue of Nature that they had briefly entangled two clouds consisting of trillions of cesium atoms. In one cloud most of the atoms were spinning one way; in the other cloud most were spinning, mirrorlike, in the opposite direction.

Correlating groups of atoms this way may find a use in quantum computers, devices where calculations are performed using single atoms or particles as counters. (Think of them as quantum abacus beads.) Theoreticians have proved that a quantum computer, if one can be built, could solve problems now considered impossible.

The experiments that won this year's Nobel in physics involved synchronizing atoms in a different but equally counterintuitive way.

Because of their quantum nature, atoms (like the particles they are made of) act like waves. The slower they move, the more stretched-out they become, dropping in pitch like a musical note sliding down the scale. Take a rarefied gas - atoms darting around in a container - and cool it so that the motion becomes slower and slower. Each atom's wavelength will widen until finally, as the temperature nears absolute zero, they all overlap, forming an exotic substance called a Bose-Einstein condensate. Imagine 2,000 billiard balls merging into one.

It is impossible for us denizens of the macro world to really picture such a state. We would have to have grown up in a universe with different constants, like the ones in Mr. Tompkins's dreams. As Gamow put it in his preface, "Even a primitive savage in such a world would be acquainted with the principles of relativity and quantum theory, and would use them for his hunting purposes and everyday needs."

As for developing quantum instincts, physicists are working their way up to the level of savages, striking sparks, building their first fires.

[Mojo]

I can see quantum entanglement leading to untapable instantaneous communication devices. Imagine being able to talk to or control a spacecraft, in real time, that is at the edge of our solar system.

[neptunesfall]

i just finished reading that. and my brain melted.

[shaolinboxer]

Have you ever read "Moving Mars" by Greg Bear?

This is the general subject of this scifi thriller.

"She ain't got no muscles in her teeth."
- Cat

[MonkeySlap Too]

And how exactly does that prove BJJ is superior?

I am a big beleiver in luck. The more I work, the more luck I have.

[Watchman]

What always makes me chuckle about articles like this (from a writer's perspective) is that the author has to leave some things for granted to the reader.

For example: In the past, experimenters had entangled two photons this way, and last year, in a major leap, they quantum mechanically tethered four atoms together.

How exactly do you "quantum mechanically tether" atoms together? Is there a Craftsman™ tool I can go pick up at Sears© that will do the job?

Watchman to store clerk: "Excuse me, but where do I find your Quantam Mechanical Tetherers? Also, if my photons come unlinked can I get a refund under the warranty?"

:rolleyes:

[rogue]

Ya know, Bruce Lee discovered Quantum Mechanics.



"Americans don't have the courage to come here," Mullah Mohammed Omar, leader of the Taliban who right about now is getting jiggy with his first of 70 virgins.

“Are you guys ready? Let’s roll.” Last words of Todd Beamer heard over his mobile line right before rushing a hijacker.

[Watchman]

That's only because Ip Man refused to teach him String Theory.

[rogue]

But Bruce did come up with one of my favorite quotes about the same time he invented the straight blast,
"In string theory, the gravitational force is represented by the exchange of closed strings, which sweep out tubes in time-space. Even if we add up an infinite series of diagrams with a large number of holes, infinities never appear in the threory, giving us a finite theory of quantum gravity". The lost pages of the Tao of JKD.

So though Ip Man didn't teach him String Theory, Bruce had a natural grasp of the subject.

He also coined the phrases Symmetry Breaking and False Vacuum.



"Americans don't have the courage to come here," Mullah Mohammed Omar, leader of the Taliban who right about now is getting jiggy with his first of 70 virgins.

“Are you guys ready? Let’s roll.” Last words of Todd Beamer heard over his mobile line right before rushing a hijacker.

[Braden]

The concept that quantum laws only apply at certain degrees of "largeness" is rather absurd. The "quantum world" is not some aethereal other dimension that overlaps our own, it is simply a different way of observing phenomenon. It is directly analogous to how chemists examine the behaviour of electrons to better understand how chemical compounds interact. Electrons aren't a mystical power whose qualities only apply when you're talking about electrons; they're a different level of understanding chemical compounds which comes with it's own benefits and shortcomings. Same deal here.

Although on the other hand, it has been proposed by some notable people that alot of quantum theory IS absurd - that is, it does NOT describe any actual reality, but is only a way of looking at a set of mathematical equations (which, again, are not describing any real process - but are handy for a very limited number of applications). I personally think this quantum entanglement issue is directly a function of this. The "observations" are so far removed from reality that it's hard to tell exactly what happened.

On a similar note, there are some newer theories coming out that oppose the idea of the "limbo state" of particles spinning both ways, and the required collapse upon observation.

Although, all that said, the best interpretation I've read on quantum mechanics is still Bohm's updated model. The other models all argue for no hidden variables, (aka "irreducible lawlessness") which seems at any level of intellectual thought to be entirely impossible, and inconsistent with every other observation about nature we've ever made. On that issue, Bohr's comments (re: quantum absurdism) also seem reasonable; but less sexy than Bohm's.

[JasBourne]

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." - Willie S.

How bad will this mess up Chaos Theory? ;)

Sometimes I really wish I could pop into the future, say 500 years or so - it would be so marvelous to see how far we have progressed in our quests for 'truth' and 'reality' and other groovy things! You know, Life, the Universe, and Everything :D

[kungfu cowboy]

Its all an incredible hoax, and most people can't do the math to prove it. :)

[Mr. Nemo]

Quantum theory is like japanese ads: it's freaking weird.

If you want a good book that explains things like quantum theory, superstrings, and the like, but is written for the layman (like me), check out "the elegant universe" by brian greene. I give it, say, four stars out of five. It gets a little confusing at times (excusable) but it's well written.

[Watchman]

Those of us in the know understand that the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything is clearly "24". ;)

Oh, and Braden...quit trolling my threads with your serious posts.

[old jong]

It makes me wonder: what would happen if a BJJ blue belt fell into a black hole?...Would it be actually the same as in a brown hole?...Could relativity explain this? :confused:

Les paroles s'envolent.
Les écrits restent!...