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Quantum Quirk: Stopped Laser Pulse Reappears a Short Distance Away
Scientific American ^ | February 07, 2007 | JR Minkel

Posted on 02/09/2007 10:40:40 AM PST by Ben Mugged

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To: SMARTY

Per quantum mechanics, there is a nonzero chance that Hillary Clinton could suddenly materialize next to you, but the odds are you'd have to wait a gagillion years for that to happen.


21 posted on 02/09/2007 11:17:00 AM PST by Strategerist
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To: Ben Mugged
Schrödinger's Cat
22 posted on 02/09/2007 11:25:55 AM PST by cowboyway (My heroes have always been Cowboys)
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To: Strategerist
Per quantum mechanics, there is a nonzero chance that Hillary Clinton could suddenly materialize next to you, but the odds are you'd have to wait a gagillion years for that to happen.

Thanks. I don't think even those long-shot odds are enough for me. Now if you could calculate the odds of Paulina Porizkova materializing...

23 posted on 02/09/2007 11:29:05 AM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: Ben Mugged; timer; betty boop; Alamo-Girl; SunkenCiv

Personal ping list

ping


24 posted on 02/09/2007 11:32:08 AM PST by Quix (GOD ALONE IS WORTHY; GOD ALONE PAID THE PRICE; GOD ALONE IS ABLE)
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To: Ben Mugged; RightWhale

Looks like they have discovered a way to 'store' light. A light battery?


25 posted on 02/09/2007 11:33:58 AM PST by blam
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To: Ben Mugged
Does explain some of Hillary's...positions.

Some have characterized her union with Bill 'cold fusion'.

26 posted on 02/09/2007 11:39:41 AM PST by siunevada (If we learn nothing from history, what's the point of having one? - Peggy Hill)
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To: GoldCountryRedneck

Now that is funny.


27 posted on 02/09/2007 11:40:26 AM PST by Zman
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To: blam
Looks like they have discovered a way to 'store' light. A light battery?

I don think so. Any significant collection of energy in the Bose Einsteinian Condensate would cause the condensate to heat up and change states into a non-condensate. At that point the physics no longer supports adding any additional energy.

28 posted on 02/09/2007 11:42:58 AM PST by Ben Mugged (Always cheat; always win. The only unfair fight is the one you lose.)
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To: Ben Mugged
The researchers shut off the control beam long enough to give the wave time to travel the 160 microns between the BECs

This is weird. The "matter wave" is not light. It is not a motion of atoms either. If I understand correctly, the atoms are confined to the BECs. Thus the matter wave is a purely quantum-mechanical construct, a wave of probability.

29 posted on 02/09/2007 11:43:24 AM PST by wideminded
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To: patton

"Hmmm. I think my dryer is a BEC."

That explains why one sock is there and the other is not.


30 posted on 02/09/2007 11:46:51 AM PST by Sensei Ern (http://www.myspace.com/reconcomedy - Time's 2006 Person of the Year)
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To: Sensei Ern

They are a quantum strange pair, you know.


31 posted on 02/09/2007 11:49:27 AM PST by patton (Sanctimony frequently reaps its own reward.)
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To: Ben Mugged

"But does it work?"

"Well, yes and no."


32 posted on 02/09/2007 12:08:50 PM PST by dangus
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To: blam

An experiment a year ago showed a light beam could be stopped and restarted. What is interesting is that things are being seen that were unexpected, and this is a good thing.


33 posted on 02/09/2007 12:10:05 PM PST by RightWhale (300 miles north of Big Wild Life)
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To: ElkGroveDan

"Was it carrying one of my missing socks?"

You knocked my socks off (with laughter) with that one.

There is nothing like a great humorist to make us all jump from a state of extreme seriousness to a state of extreme laughter; you have my thanks and get my "Wuli chuckle of the day prize" for today.


34 posted on 02/09/2007 12:11:27 PM PST by Wuli
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To: Ben Mugged

"As a result, the BEC enters a so-called superposition, meaning the matter wave is simultaneously there and not there."

And people still believe there can be something that is "supernatural", when science continues to show us the reality that the only thing between "natural" and "supernatural" is the length of the state of our ignorance.


35 posted on 02/09/2007 12:17:40 PM PST by Wuli
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To: Wuli
There is nothing like a great humorist to make us all jump from a state of extreme seriousness

Just doing my job.


36 posted on 02/09/2007 12:18:03 PM PST by ElkGroveDan (When toilet paper is a luxury, you have achieved communism.)
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To: Ben Mugged

WOW! KINDA LIKE THE SOCIAL SECURITY TRUST FUND!


37 posted on 02/09/2007 12:23:21 PM PST by jbenedic2 (Nothing new for the New York Times)
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To: Ben Mugged

OK - there's gotta be a way of turning this into a weapon. Let's get busy!


38 posted on 02/09/2007 12:24:57 PM PST by 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten
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To: Ben Mugged

"Beam me up Scotty!"


39 posted on 02/09/2007 12:30:03 PM PST by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra ("Don't touch that thing")
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To: wideminded

Here's how it may work.

Line up five billiard balls in a row touching each other on a pool table. Drive the cue ball into the first and see the last billiard ball move across the table through the transfer of energy while the first four balls remain in place.

Something like that happens with light.

The universe is much simpler than most people realize and all it's forces and mechanics incredibly simple 'though sublime.


40 posted on 02/09/2007 12:32:09 PM PST by johnmark7
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