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Quantum physics: What is really real?
nature.com ^ | 20 May 2015 | Zeeya Merali

Posted on 05/20/2015 9:21:49 AM PDT by Reeses

Owen Maroney worries that physicists have spent the better part of a century engaging in fraud.

Ever since they invented quantum theory in the early 1900s, explains Maroney, who is himself a physicist at the University of Oxford, UK, they have been talking about how strange it is — how it allows particles and atoms to move in many directions at once, for example, or to spin clockwise and anticlockwise simultaneously. But talk is not proof, says Maroney. “If we tell the public that quantum theory is weird, we better go out and test that's actually true,” he says. “Otherwise we're not doing science, we're just explaining some funny squiggles on a blackboard.”

It is this sentiment that has led Maroney and others to develop a new series of experiments to uncover the nature of the wavefunction — the mysterious entity that lies at the heart of quantum weirdness. On paper, the wavefunction is simply a mathematical object that physicists denote with the Greek letter psi (Ψ) — one of Maroney's funny squiggles — and use to describe a particle's quantum behaviour. Depending on the experiment, the wavefunction allows them to calculate the probability of observing an electron at any particular location, or the chances that its spin is oriented up or down. But the mathematics shed no light on what a wavefunction truly is. Is it a physical thing? Or just a calculating tool for handling an observer's ignorance about the world? ...

(Excerpt) Read more at nature.com ...


TOPICS: Science
KEYWORDS: physics; pilotwave; quantum; quantumphysic; quantumphysics; stringtheory
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Most physicists unfortunately are government workers so, like global warming models, politics is involved, but there is some sane research going on. It's looking like waves physically exist outside the mathematical models but who knows what the wave medium is.
1 posted on 05/20/2015 9:21:49 AM PDT by Reeses
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To: Reeses

Dr. Sheldon Cooper has all the answers.


2 posted on 05/20/2015 9:23:53 AM PDT by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannoli. Take it to the Mattress.")
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To: Reeses

Professor John Lennox, who is the mathematics chair at Oxford University has made many of the same observations.


3 posted on 05/20/2015 9:25:02 AM PDT by circlecity
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My desk is made of waves, not particles?

Well, it is still just a theory.


4 posted on 05/20/2015 9:27:08 AM PDT by Rio (Proud resident of the State of Jefferson)
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To: Reeses

““If we tell the public that quantum theory is weird, we better go out and test that’s actually true,” he says. “Otherwise we’re not doing science, we’re just explaining some funny squiggles on a blackboard.””

The classic wave-slit experiment showing photons are both waves and particles isn’t a test? And doesn’t show weird?

And if “spooky action at a distance,” which also can be tested, isn’t weird, then what does this guy want? Particles to wear spandex and sing “Springtime for Hitler”?


5 posted on 05/20/2015 9:27:13 AM PDT by sparklite2
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To: shibumi

Strawberry fields, forever...ping.


6 posted on 05/20/2015 9:28:01 AM PDT by Salamander (Like acid and oil on a madman's face, reason tends to fly away.)
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To: Rio

And color is just an illusion.


7 posted on 05/20/2015 9:28:44 AM PDT by Salamander (Like acid and oil on a madman's face, reason tends to fly away.)
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To: Reeses

There is a guy, Randell Mills, from Blacklight Power, who had some problems with Quantum Physics a while ago and posited a new theory of the atom. He’s privately funded because he believes that the real theory of the atom is key to abundant energy availability from water.

He has university reviewed experiments to document his observations and is now in the prototype stage for some serious power generation capabilities. He calls his theory Classical Quantum Mechanics and I’ve been monitoring a Yahoo News Group where there is lively interaction on the subject.

When I was in Quantum Mechanics class in grad school, I was very skeptical that the real universe was based on random and/or even probabilistic events.

http://www.blacklightpower.com

for more info.


8 posted on 05/20/2015 9:29:25 AM PDT by tstarr
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To: Reeses

Theories in Quantum Physics make predictions, many of which have been tested in particle accelerators. Quantum effects have been used to make practical electronic components. Weird as it is, it seems apparent that it is describing SOMETHING about reality. Now, it is very likely that we will find that the “real” “physical” underpinnings for these phenomena are even STRANGER.


9 posted on 05/20/2015 9:36:50 AM PDT by Rebel_Ace (HITLER! There, Zero to Godwin in 5.2 seconds.)
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To: Reeses

QM is the standard boilerplate fodder for pop-sci articles since it’s weird, kinda sexy, and there’s a high likelihood that your audience doesn’t know enough obscure math/physics to prove your article wrong. Those who actually ‘do’ QM, long gave up trying to explain it in lay terms, and have moved on.


10 posted on 05/20/2015 9:37:25 AM PDT by SpaceBar
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To: Reeses

At least quantum physicists don’t tell me I need to shut down the world economy to appeased their angry sky gods.
And ask the folks in Hiroshima whether nuclear science does have some applications.
Quantum physics is obviously pure science and not having an application it is very hard to tell what is real and what is fraudulent.
But the usefulness of any pure science is that sometimes something useful does spin out and it becomes applied science. For example, in the 18th century, electricity was just something cool people with too much time n their hands experimented with, now it’s kind of useful.


11 posted on 05/20/2015 9:38:06 AM PDT by thorvaldr
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To: Don Corleone

Yes, Yes he does! And he will tell everyone he does and prove it on his white board.


12 posted on 05/20/2015 9:40:10 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232 ((VietVet - USMC All Ready On The Right? All Ready On The Left? All Ready On The Firing Line!))
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To: Reeses

The copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics is to science like egalitarianism, redistributionism,environmentalism, and equality of result are to politics. Both are products of the disintegrated mode of thought.


13 posted on 05/20/2015 9:43:04 AM PDT by mjp ((pro-{God, reality, reason, egoism, individualism, natural rights, limited government, capitalism}))
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To: Reeses

The most “real” thing about it is the amount of tax dollars spent on it.


14 posted on 05/20/2015 9:45:42 AM PDT by kjam22 (my music video "If My People" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74b20RjILy4)
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To: Reeses

15 posted on 05/20/2015 9:46:12 AM PDT by TexasCajun
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To: Don Corleone

Schrödinger’s cat!


16 posted on 05/20/2015 9:55:39 AM PDT by treetopsandroofs (Had FDR been GOP, there would have been no World Wars, just "The Great War" and "Roosevelt's Wars".)
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To: Reeses

I just explain to people that the world we live in is really very much like “The Matrix” or an incredibly detailed video game and perception really IS reality. All matter is basically “coagulated energy”.

I like to press my hands together and explain to people that they are not touching, but the forces are repelling much like two magnets repel. But we’ve lived with the phenomenon our whole lives and our PERCEPTION is that our hands are touching - and for all practical purposes they ARE touching, except they are not.

And everything that appears solid is mostly empty space, just like a galaxy.

But eternity (with God) is the “real” world. That is why it says in the bible that now we see as through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Just as Model T’s were AMAZING when they were introdiced, and now are quaint relics, in the afterlife, that is how we will view this semi-existence.


17 posted on 05/20/2015 9:56:55 AM PDT by cuban leaf (The US will not survive the obama presidency. The world may not either.)
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To: Reeses

They use the dead cat / live cat too much. The cat is either alive or dead and observing it will not change that. I don’t care how many times you open the box. I am not looking at my car right now, although I know it is in the parking lot. For all I KNOW it could be on it’s way to New York. But going out to look to make sure it is still there won’t change the fact of where it is, only the KNOWLEDGE of where it is. It is not BOTH on the way to New York AND in the parking lot.

They need to STOP using that analogy.

Next, of course particles and waves will work the same when shot through a little slit. The wave hits and particles slip through. You have CHANGED the wave to particles.

It’s like a large body of water behaves like a stream through a hose when you force it through a little hole. Well, duh!!

Then of course the continually rearranging universe to alternate reality business. These people really need to get an actual job.

I don’t think their research is unimportant, it is just that they either misinterpret what is going on or they have a very bad way of explaining it.


18 posted on 05/20/2015 9:57:10 AM PDT by SolidRedState (I used to think bizarro world was a fiction.)
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To: Reeses

19 posted on 05/20/2015 10:05:20 AM PDT by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open (<o> ---)
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To: tstarr

20 posted on 05/20/2015 10:08:59 AM PDT by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open (<o> ---)
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