TELEPDRTHTIDH 6 i
that particles vibrating in coherence have some kind of deep connection linking them together.
Let's start with two coherent electrons oscillating in unison. Next,
let them go flying out in opposite directions. Each electron is like a
spinning top. The spins of each electron can be pointed up or down.
Let's say that the total spin of the system is zero, so that if the spin of
one electron is up, then you know automatically that the spin of the
other electron is down. According to the quantum theory, before you
make a measurement, the electron is spinning neither up nor down
but exists in a nether state where it is spinning both up and down simultaneously. (Once you make an observation, the wave function "collapses," leaving a particle in a definite state.)
Next, measure the spin of one electron. It is, say, spinning up. Then
you know instantly that the spin of the other electron is down. Even if
the electrons are separated by many light-years, you instantly know
the spin of the second electron as soon as you measure the spin of the
first electron. In fact, you know this faster than the speed of lightl Because these two electrons are "entangled," that is, their wave functions
beat in unison, their wave functions are connected by an invisible
"thread" or umbilical cord. Whatever happens to one automatically
has an effect on the other. (This means, in some sense, that what
happens to us automatically affects things instantaneously in distant
corners of the universe, since our wave functions were probably entangled at the beginning of time. In some sense there is a web of entanglement that connects distant corners of the universe, including
us.) Einstein derisively called this "spooky-action-at-distance," and
this phenomenon enabled him to "prove" that the quantum theory was
wrong, in his mind, since nothing can travel faster than the speed of
light.
Originally, Einstein designed the EPR experiment to serve as the
death knell of the quantum theory. But in the 1980s Alan Aspect and
his colleagues in France performed this experiment with two detectors
separated by 13 meters, measuring the spins of photons emitted from
calcium atoms, and the results agreed precisely with the quantum theory. Apparently God does play dice with the universe.
that particles vibrating in coherence have some kind of deep connection linking them together.
Let's start with two coherent electrons oscillating in unison. Next,
let them go flying out in opposite directions. Each electron is like a
spinning top. The spins of each electron can be pointed up or down.
Let's say that the total spin of the system is zero, so that if the spin of
one electron is up, then you know automatically that the spin of the
other electron is down. According to the quantum theory, before you
make a measurement, the electron is spinning neither up nor down
but exists in a nether state where it is spinning both up and down simultaneously. (Once you make an observation, the wave function "collapses," leaving a particle in a definite state.)
Next, measure the spin of one electron. It is, say, spinning up. Then
you know instantly that the spin of the other electron is down. Even if
the electrons are separated by many light-years, you instantly know
the spin of the second electron as soon as you measure the spin of the
first electron. In fact, you know this faster than the speed of lightl Because these two electrons are "entangled," that is, their wave functions
beat in unison, their wave functions are connected by an invisible
"thread" or umbilical cord. Whatever happens to one automatically
has an effect on the other. (This means, in some sense, that what
happens to us automatically affects things instantaneously in distant
corners of the universe, since our wave functions were probably entangled at the beginning of time. In some sense there is a web of entanglement that connects distant corners of the universe, including
us.) Einstein derisively called this "spooky-action-at-distance," and
this phenomenon enabled him to "prove" that the quantum theory was
wrong, in his mind, since nothing can travel faster than the speed of
light.
Originally, Einstein designed the EPR experiment to serve as the
death knell of the quantum theory. But in the 1980s Alan Aspect and
his colleagues in France performed this experiment with two detectors
separated by 13 meters, measuring the spins of photons emitted from
calcium atoms, and the results agreed precisely with the quantum theory. Apparently God does play dice with the universe.