juliaoceania
Posts: 21383
Joined: 4/19/2006
From: Somewhere Over the Rainbow
Status: offline
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: DomKen
quote:
ORIGINAL: juliaoceania
I am not talking about the Heisenberg Principle. I am talking about The Observer Effect, although human consciousness is not necessary for the effect to happen
Yes you are talking about Heisenberg. The observer effect in quantum physics is a special case.
A commonly nondebatable use of the term refers to quantum mechanics, where, if the outcome of an event has not been observed, it exists in a state of 'superposition', which is akin to being in all possible states at once. An observer is anything that causes wavefunction collapse, it could be anything really; a rock, human, particle, etc. It is important to note that an observer has nothing at all to do with a human consciousness. In the famous thought experiment known as Schrödinger's cat the cat is supposedly neither alive nor dead until observed. However, most quantum physicists,[who?] in resolving Schrödinger's seeming paradox, now understand that the acts of 'observation' and 'measurement' must also be defined in quantum terms before the question makes sense.[citation needed] From this point of view, there is no 'observer effect', only one vastly entangled quantum system.[citation needed]John Archibald Wheeler devised a graphic in which the universe was represented by a "U" with an eye on one end, turned around and viewing itself, to describe his understanding.
The Heisenberg uncertainty principle is also frequently confused with the "observer effect". The uncertainty principle actually describes how precisely we may measure the position and momentum of a particle at the same time — if we increase the precision in measuring one quantity, we are forced to lose precision in measuring the other.[1] Thus, the uncertainty principle deals with measurement, and not observation.[citation needed] The idea that the uncertainty principle is caused by disturbance (and hence by observation) is not considered to be valid by some,[who?] although it was extant in the early years of quantum mechanics, and is often repeated in popular treatments.
There is a related issue in quantum mechanics relating to whether systems have pre-existing (prior to measurement, that is) properties corresponding to all measurements that could possibly be made on them. The assumption that is often made is referred to as "realism" in literature, although it has been argued that the word "realism" is being used in a more restricted sense than philosophical realism.[2] A recent experiment in the realm of quantum physics has been quoted as meaning that we have to "say goodbye" to realism, although the author of the paper states only that "we would [..] have to give up certain intuitive features of realism".[3][4] These experiments demonstrate a puzzling relationship between the act of measurement and the system being measured, although it is clear from experiment that an "observer" consisting of a single electron is sufficient—the observer need not be a conscious observer.[5] Also, note that Bell's Theorem strongly suggests that the idea that the state of a system exists independently of its observer may be false.[citation needed]
Note that the special role given to observation (the claim that it affects the system being observed, regardless of the specific method used for observation) is a defining feature of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. Other interpretations resolve the apparent paradoxes from experimental results in other ways. For instance, the many-worlds interpretation posits the existence of multiple universes in which an observed system displays all possible states to all possible observers. In this model, observation of a system does not change the behavior of the system—it simply answers the question of which universe the observer is located in. In some universes, the observer would observe one result from one state of the system, and in others the observer would observe a different result from a different state of the system.[6]
The impact of observation on quantum systems has been demonstrated experimentally.[5
_____________________________
Once you label me, you negate me ~ Soren Kierkegaard
Reality has a well known Liberal Bias ~ Stephen Colbert
Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people. Eleanor Roosevelt
|
RE: Atheists fed up? Believe it! - Guest Voices - The W... - 
Profile
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread