On 9/24/2012 8:57 PM, Stephen P. King wrote:
On 9/24/2012 11:17 PM, meekerdb wrote:
On 9/24/2012 8:02 PM, [email protected] wrote:
Citeren meekerdb <[email protected]>:
On 9/24/2012 9:28 AM, Stephen P. King wrote:
On 9/24/2012 12:02 PM, John Clark wrote:
Thus the moon does not exist when you are not looking at it.
Hi John,
I expected better from you! This quip is based on the premise that "you" are the
only observer involved. Such nonsense! Considering that there are a HUGE number of
observers of the moon, the effects of the observations of any one is negligible. If
none of them measure the presence of the moon or its effects, then the existence of
the moon becomes pure the object of speculation. Note that being affected by the
moon in terms of tidal effects is a measurement!
So who or what counts as an observer. Young's slit experiments on fullerenes seem to
indicate that a few IR photons or gas molecules qualify.
http://arxiv.org/pdf/0903.1614v1.pdf
Brent
If I don't observe it, then it doesn't matter who/what else observes something, the
rest of the universe is still a superposition. It doesn't matter whether or not an
interference pattern can be detected.
?? I could matter. Suppose I bet you $100 there's no interference pattern when the
buckyballs are hot? Then it would matter. But apparently it wouldn't matter whether
anyone observed the IR photons or not.
Brent
Hi Brent,
If we are consistent with the rules of QM, the mere possibility of detection of
position basis information is sufficient to prevent the interference pattern. Thus my
prediction is that the temperature of the buckyballs is irrelevant for the two slit
experiment, so long as a position basis measurement is not possible. Very hard to do...
No, the temperature is crucial and proves your point. When the buckyballs are cold they
form an interference pattern. When they are hot, they don't - because they are hot enough
to emit enough IR photons on their way through the apparatus to localize themselves, even
though nobody and no instruments are recording the IR photons.
It might be interesting to do this experiment out in space where there are no walls or
anything else to absorb the IR photons, but I think the outcome would be the same. Just
the photons and their eventual interactions with the vacuum would be enough to produce
decoherence.
Brent
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