Once again, into the breach

For fans of physics humor out there (not to mention people who don't like kitties), you have to check out this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hNDZ79MDC0

A bit with robots and the Schrodinger's Cat thought experiment (the cat in the box simultaneously dead and alive, since both states are possible and neither can be observed).

It is an odd property of quantum mechanics that things behave differently when observed vs when not observed. The easiest example of this that can be "proved" is the wave/particle dual nature of the electron.

Electrons are small enough that the "observation" of the particles requires that we disturb the particles. To see them, we must bombard them with photons - the energy of the photons disturbs the motion of the electrons because the particles are on (roughly) the same scale. Since our visual observations require light (aka photons), all direct observations of electrons lead us to see the particle nature of the electron. The problem is that, to use a macro scale analogy, this would be like trying to determine the natural habits of a wild animal while constantly prodding said animal with a stick. You will get a result, but it will only tell you how the animal acts when you poke it with a stick. The kind of direct observation we use in the macro world falls apart at the quantum level.

If you shot a beam of electrons at photosensitive paper while observing the electrons, you would come up with a pattern very similar to what you would get if you fired a bunch of wet tennis balls at a wall through a autopitch machine. You would see most of the tennis balls (electrons) having a central location, with the occasional outlier. The electrons would act like particles.

If you shut out the lights and did not watch the electrons, they would hit the photopaper and leave a distinct wave-like pattern, nothing like particles at all! Kind of cool, and actually an easy experiment to replicate (assuming you have something to beam electrons with).

But in all seriousness, it is a cool way of seeing the difference between the wave and particle nature of matter, especially with a relatively large particle like the electron (large by comparison to photons and such). Even a particle that has a detectable mass still has a distinct wave function quality, and in fact the theoretical models of electron "location" in atoms are built on these probability wave models.

Well, I think it's cool anyway.

I am going to try to write more, and get back into the short story end of the blog as well.

Bye for now.