Is entanglement faster than light?

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In summary, entangled particles do not operate on the principle that light is the fastest means of information transpiration, as the information is not traveling but rather existing in both places at once due to a connection via a non-physical continuum. This is similar to the situation where someone has a penny and a dime, and without looking at them, gives one to a friend who takes it to a distant location. By looking at the coin in hand, the holder instantly knows the type of coin at the distant location. However, this does not violate Special Relativity as the information was already available to the holder. This is just an analogy and does not fully explain the concept of entanglement, which has been proven by Bell and others to be
  • #1
apocalight
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Forgive me for such a basic question, but recently I have been reading up on entangled particles. It seems that a lot of that information would lead one to believe that entangled particles don't operate on the principle that light is the fastest means of information transpiration. If what happens to one entangled particle instantaneously occurs to the other, wouldn't that pave the way for information travel that moved faster than light?
 
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  • #2
The thing is when that happens to particles, the information is not traveling, it is simply at both places at once. The information being the way the particle is set up/existing. It has to do with the Time-Space continuum on the other side of the " universal spectrum" that isn't actually occupied by physical constructs. Potential Physical space/entities just exists as part of the fundamental nature of the Space-Time Continuum which we live in. Er a better way of putting it is that in Time-Space there is no such thing as physical location but the 2 entangled particles have a connection via Time-Space. Meaning the information of the particle isn't traveling at all, it simply is in both places because there is a connection via a non-physical continuum. Which may be an inaccurate way of describing it.
 
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Information transpiration?
 
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Prof. Susskind gives a really good comparison of entanglement with the situation where someone has a penny and a dime.
Without looking which is which, you give one to a friend, who takes it to Alpha Proxima (or wherever).
Then you look at the coin in your hand. If it's a penny, you know instantly that the other coin at Alpha Proxima is a dime - and vice versa.
Spooky eh?
The information about the dime has traveled all the way from AP instantly.
 
  • #5
AJ Bentley said:
Prof. Susskind gives a really good comparison of entanglement with the situation where someone has a penny and a dime.
Without looking which is which, you give one to a friend, who takes it to Alpha Proxima (or wherever).
Then you look at the coin in your hand. If it's a penny, you know instantly that the other coin at Alpha Proxima is a dime - and vice versa.
Spooky eh?
The information about the dime has traveled all the way from AP instantly.
There are proofs (Bell and others) that entanglement CANNOT be explained in that way.
 
  • #6
Demystifier said:
There are proofs (Bell and others) that entanglement CANNOT be explained in that way.

Nobody said otherwise. In the context it's an adequate explanation of information transfer without violation of Special Relativity.
If you don't agree take it up with LS. I'm just quoting.
 
  • #7
AJ Bentley said:
Prof. Susskind gives a really good comparison of entanglement with the situation where someone has a penny and a dime.
Without looking which is which, you give one to a friend, who takes it to Alpha Proxima (or wherever).
Then you look at the coin in your hand. If it's a penny, you know instantly that the other coin at Alpha Proxima is a dime - and vice versa.
Spooky eh?
The information about the dime has traveled all the way from AP instantly.

Of course, the information has not really traveled instantly. In fact, it has not traveled at all. In order for one to say that any information has traveled at all, much less instantly, one would have to define information as that knowledge or data which would otherwise not be available to the recipient. In the case of the coin, the information is already available to the holder of the coin, and it is only because the holder has not yet chosen to avail himself of the information that he does not yet "know" which coin he holds.

Nevertheless, it is an interesting analogy to the original concept.
 
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1. Is light still the fastest?

Yes, according to current scientific understanding, light is still considered the fastest thing in the universe.

2. How fast is the speed of light?

The speed of light is approximately 299,792,458 meters per second, or about 670,616,629 miles per hour.

3. Can anything travel faster than light?

According to Einstein's theory of relativity, it is not possible for anything with mass to travel faster than the speed of light. However, there are some theories that suggest that certain particles, such as neutrinos, may be able to exceed the speed of light under certain conditions.

4. Has the speed of light ever been broken?

No, the speed of light has never been broken or exceeded. Any claims of faster-than-light travel have been proven to be false.

5. Will the speed of light ever change?

According to the current laws of physics, the speed of light is considered a constant and is not expected to change. However, some theories suggest that the speed of light may have been different in the early universe.

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