Philosophy
As we've seen before in the Light Fantastic documentary series, light presents some of the greatest mysteries in all of science. The following clip (from the horrendous movie What the Bleep Do We Know) does a surprisingly good job of explaining in simple terms the classic work on the single and double slit experiments involving photons, which led to the utterly strange conclusion that light can behave like particles and waves, depending on what you're looking for. This idea is appropriately referred to as particle-wave duality.
I wouldn't jump to any conclusions about the 'consciousness' of the universe, or about the purposiveness of nature, or any bizarre ideas like that, the way the movie does, but it is definitely weird that light would act both as particles and waves, and that this behavior seems to be observer-dependent.
And if you want more weirdness, to learn about quantum mechanics and the curiosity of Schrödinger's cat.
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- Auto Mechanics And Quantum Mechanics -- Really
This has never happened before, I actually got questions about auto mechanics and quantum mechanics. Wow. Ben asks: Are the rotors on your car attached at all once you remove the calipers or will they just slide off? Seriously though, the auto-mechanics...
- Stool Pigeons And Quantum Logic
Claude brings us a nice ethical problem, Many are brought up being told that you should never tell on someone. At the same time, whistle blowing can bring many benefits to society. When is it unethical not to tell? Where do you draw the line between answering...
- Brian Cox's Guide To Quantum Mechanics
Ok, so last time we talked about the properties of light on this blog, in the Light Fantastic documentary series, we saw Thomas Young was able to account for color by arguing that light must be some sort of wave: different frequencies would produce different...
- No Evidence, No Cigar...robert Lanza's Biocentric Universe And The Afterlife
"Is there an afterlife? Science can prove there is, quantum physicist claims" by John Hall November 15th, 2013 The Independent It's a question pondered by philosophers, scientists and the devout since the dawn of time: is there an afterlife? While...
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My response--no. "Will we ever… understand quantum theory? " by Philip Ball January 25th, 2013 BBC NEWS Quantum mechanics must be one of the most successful theories in science. Developed at the start of the twentieth century, it has been used...
Philosophy
Particle-Wave Duality - The Double Slit Experiment
As we've seen before in the Light Fantastic documentary series, light presents some of the greatest mysteries in all of science. The following clip (from the horrendous movie What the Bleep Do We Know) does a surprisingly good job of explaining in simple terms the classic work on the single and double slit experiments involving photons, which led to the utterly strange conclusion that light can behave like particles and waves, depending on what you're looking for. This idea is appropriately referred to as particle-wave duality.I wouldn't jump to any conclusions about the 'consciousness' of the universe, or about the purposiveness of nature, or any bizarre ideas like that, the way the movie does, but it is definitely weird that light would act both as particles and waves, and that this behavior seems to be observer-dependent.
And if you want more weirdness, to learn about quantum mechanics and the curiosity of Schrödinger's cat.
.
- Auto Mechanics And Quantum Mechanics -- Really
This has never happened before, I actually got questions about auto mechanics and quantum mechanics. Wow. Ben asks: Are the rotors on your car attached at all once you remove the calipers or will they just slide off? Seriously though, the auto-mechanics...
- Stool Pigeons And Quantum Logic
Claude brings us a nice ethical problem, Many are brought up being told that you should never tell on someone. At the same time, whistle blowing can bring many benefits to society. When is it unethical not to tell? Where do you draw the line between answering...
- Brian Cox's Guide To Quantum Mechanics
Ok, so last time we talked about the properties of light on this blog, in the Light Fantastic documentary series, we saw Thomas Young was able to account for color by arguing that light must be some sort of wave: different frequencies would produce different...
- No Evidence, No Cigar...robert Lanza's Biocentric Universe And The Afterlife
"Is there an afterlife? Science can prove there is, quantum physicist claims" by John Hall November 15th, 2013 The Independent It's a question pondered by philosophers, scientists and the devout since the dawn of time: is there an afterlife? While...
- Quantum Theory...totally Understood?
My response--no. "Will we ever… understand quantum theory? " by Philip Ball January 25th, 2013 BBC NEWS Quantum mechanics must be one of the most successful theories in science. Developed at the start of the twentieth century, it has been used...