Quantum physics in three sentences?

[Fredrik]

OK, it's possible that I got the wrong impression, but when you say things like "these elites can churn theories after theories without fear that someone would be able to invalidate the results", it sounds like you're going for the conspiracy theory.

 

[Ken G]

The outcome of that experiment, on either half, is predicted by quantum mechanics to be the same as if you just had a single slit and your right-angle screen, but half the intensity at the source. You could even use a mirror, instead of a screen, in the middle to get your doubling-over effect automatically, but again the outcome is predicted by wave theory and no one would expect the experiment to come out any differently. The point is, many trials with one photon must end up with the same co-added result as the classical wave result, or else the principle of superposition is violated-- a principle that has passed a thousand tests with flying colors. The photon is the "cleaner" particle to use for that, because it doesn't interact with other photons-- if you want to do it with electrons, you do have to worry about internal interactions unless you lower the intensity to one at a time. But quantum mechanics has passed a lot of tests like that already.

Now, you can certainly do the experiment to find out if quantum mechanics is right for both photons and electrons, there is no harm in actually testing it because you never really know if it might not be right. But no one would expect it not to be right, and I don't see why you wonder if it will be right or not. No one thinks the pattern is caused by interactions between elecrons (that has already been checked with one-at-a-time electron sources), and no one thinks the pattern is due to scattering off the edges of the slit (such scattering events are related to the width of the barrier used, and can be calculated and taken into account). I certainly think you should go ahead with such an experiment if you have the wherewithall, but I doubt you can convince anyone else to try it, because they will see a vanishighly small likelihood that quantum mechanics won't predict such an experiment bang on.

 

[Fredrik]

OMGLOL!

I thought it was funny too. He was the first internet troll I've appreciated. Most people seemed to think that he actually believed that David Bowie had stolen all his ideas from Lady Gaga. There were lots of frustrated replies that tried to explain to him how wrong he was, and of course a lot of people just yelled insults at him.

(I think the song was Ashes to Ashes. I looked it up, and it was released in 1980, so I should have said 80's, not 70's).

 

[Ken G]

Getting back to the topic at hand, we were wondering if physics works because there really is such a thing as objective reality, or if objective reality is just another physics model and when it doesn't work we just use some other physics model, or some more sophisticated version of what we mean by objective reality. I was saying that we shouldn't pin our faith in physics on some naive concept invented thousands of years ago, like the common notion of objective reality.

 

[DevilsAvocado]

I thought it was funny too. He was the first internet troll I've appreciated. Most people seemed to think that he actually believed that David Bowie had stolen all his ideas from Lady Gaga. There were lots of frustrated replies that tried to explain to him how wrong he was, and of course a lot of people just yelled insults at him.

(I think the song was Ashes to Ashes. I looked it up, and it was released in 1980, so I should have said 80's, not 70's).

Yeah, it’s hilarious! It’s not always easy to decide if you’re talking to a 'woozy kid' or a 'real troll'.

I don’t know if it’s http://www.youtube.com/all_comments?v=XXq5VvYAI1Q", but there are ~5,000 comments and a lot about Lady Gaga...

"I think he was a Lady Gaga of the 70s(and it's not an insult), and before you swear me for what I've said think about the reason why I said that,...it has a big point!"
...
"omg who ever said lady gaga wow hahahahaha WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG"
...
"Lady Gaga is the god knows what love child of Britney Spears, Donald Trump, and a goat"
...
"Please, STOP talking about Lady Gaga!"​

Okay guys, enough off-topics, back to business...

I have a lot to ask/say, back soon... (hopefully)