Tag Archives: quantum mechanics

Quantum Erasure.

Oh no wait, erasers.

It’s at around this point that I start thinking “Why on earth did I decide to write something about the quantum eraser?” As if wavefunction collapse and wave-particle duality weren’t hard enough concepts to get your head around at the best of times, introducing the quantum eraser and quantum entanglement will probably make your brain implode completely. I know mine did, and still does every time I read about it. I make a lot of sacrifices for you guys, okay?

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Double Slit Trouble.

And so the blog finally drags on to the point where I have to start talking quantum again. Quantum mechanics is a hell of a thing; it’s both complex and hugely counterintuitive, and it isn’t helped by many of the popular misconceptions about it such as Schrodinger’s cat. I originally wanted to explain how quantum entanglement and the quantum eraser works because it’s one of the most head-screwy bits of physics out there, but then I realised there’s a lot of basic physics knowledge required to understand that that I can’t just take for granted. In particular you really have to know about wave-particle duality and the double slit experiment.

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Schrodinger’s Cat Is Stuck In His Box.


How much do you know about Schrodinger’s Cat? Not his actual cat – I do not know if Schrodinger ever owned a moggy of his own, although his casual mental cruelty towards cats would probably mark him as more of a dog person – but his famous thought experiment. You have a cat locked in a box along with a vial of poison gas and a molecule of a radioactive isotope which has a half-life of t. If the isotope decays it will release a radiation particle which breaks the vial of poison gas and kills the cat. If we wait for a time t after the box has been shut then the chances of the isotope decaying or not are exactly 50/50, and consequently the chances of the cat being gassed or not are also exactly 50/50.

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If Cats Were Scientists.

Josh asks

 String theory. What the very fuck is it.

I was going to chide you for swearing on this blog, Josh; it’s a family space and a small child could happen by and have their brain infected with that nasty language. Then I remembered that I fucking hate string theory – I truly detest it – and that a sizeable percentage of the next thousand words I write describing it are going to be swear words. On this one occasion, therefore, you are forgiven.

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