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To: Brilliant
Einstein did not have all the pieces of the puzzle, true, but these scientists have yet to prove him wrong. That is ironic in itself as the scientists use the same rules of quantum mechanics when conducting experiments to contradict the rules of quantum mechanics.
But, here again, the scientists may find small loopholes in theory with all the advanced knowledge that they have, but every experiment still holds true to the basic fundamentals. That, which Einstein theorized.
26 posted on 12/28/2005 2:07:07 PM PST by HOTTIEBOY (If the enemy is in shooting range, so are you.)
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To: HOTTIEBOY

Einstein never reconciled himself to quantum mechanics in the Copenhagen mold. The EPR paper was his attempt to show that either quantum mechanics is incomplete (which he thought to be the case) or that quantum mechanics (and so reality) is non-local (which he didn't think was the case). Bell's inequalities gave physicists hope of finding out experimentally which of the these two options was the case; Aspect's experiments showed that it was the latter, that is, that quantum mechanics (and so reality) has a non-local aspect (so to speak!). These results post-dated Einstein's death, of course, so he wasn't forced to confront the consequences.


32 posted on 12/28/2005 2:25:27 PM PST by snarks_when_bored
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To: HOTTIEBOY

Most of these guys are just capitalizing on the inability of the public (and more importantly, the guys who fund this research) to understand what they are doing, and what it proves or doesn't prove. They do an experiment, make grandiose claims, and no one challenges their conclusions. Since it's all academic anyway at this point, no one has any incentive to challenge it.

I'll agree that there is a mystery, but it's largely a mystery that they all have a financial and academic interest in perpetuating, and that raises the question of whether they've created the mystery themselves. They seem to focus on Einstein's 60 year old discussion of this topic. They debunk his logic experimentally, and then conclude that they are therefore correct in their logic. It just doesn't follow.

Of course, the reason why they focus on Einstein's logic is that none of them has the cajones to take up where Einstein left off, and make the case against "quantum weirdness." In order to do that, you've got to have a competing theory, and these guys tend to be focused on experimental physics rather than theoretical physics.

Nothing much is going to happen to advance the field of quantum physics, I don't think, until some brilliant theoretical physicist is able to come to a theory that explains what matter is. Right now, they don't even know what "spin" is, so how on earth can they make these sweeping claims about a "cat state" without even knowing what it means?


42 posted on 12/28/2005 2:42:01 PM PST by Brilliant
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