Week 3 Physics: How would you explain connectivity?
On Connectivity
As we know from the EPR paradox, and the experiment that followed, two split particles, though separate, are connected as when one is manipulated the other is simultaneously affected (but not affected by the other particle, rather affected by us). The particles are called superpositions because their state is then uncertain - we only know their definite state when we manipulate it.
So the particles are entangled superpositions.
This really defies our logic because how can this particle, this electron, be indefinite and then when it is measured it is definite? And how is it that though they are most definitely split, a manipulation to one results in a manipulation to both.
So the dichotomies of definite/indefinite and separate/connected are at play here.
I'm having a hard time reckoning these paradoxes. What comes to mind is array of possibilities - ever present, moment to moment, and that everything must seem separate but from another frame of reference is actually connected. It doesn't sound so outlandish when I consider improbabilities, what some people call "miracles" or when I think of coincidences - because what explains these inexplicable events is that myriad possibilities are ever present and that we are all connected in ways that aren't always readily known, and maybe not connected all at once.
So is there another force at play that we can't measure, quantify, or maybe even fathom? That shirks all definitions, that when spoken only remains a bastardized representation, constantly alluding us?
I think yes - there is a force out there that says, more than anything, "the more you seek the more I hide", this force is truth with a capital "T".
As we know from the EPR paradox, and the experiment that followed, two split particles, though separate, are connected as when one is manipulated the other is simultaneously affected (but not affected by the other particle, rather affected by us). The particles are called superpositions because their state is then uncertain - we only know their definite state when we manipulate it.
So the particles are entangled superpositions.
This really defies our logic because how can this particle, this electron, be indefinite and then when it is measured it is definite? And how is it that though they are most definitely split, a manipulation to one results in a manipulation to both.
So the dichotomies of definite/indefinite and separate/connected are at play here.
I'm having a hard time reckoning these paradoxes. What comes to mind is array of possibilities - ever present, moment to moment, and that everything must seem separate but from another frame of reference is actually connected. It doesn't sound so outlandish when I consider improbabilities, what some people call "miracles" or when I think of coincidences - because what explains these inexplicable events is that myriad possibilities are ever present and that we are all connected in ways that aren't always readily known, and maybe not connected all at once.
So is there another force at play that we can't measure, quantify, or maybe even fathom? That shirks all definitions, that when spoken only remains a bastardized representation, constantly alluding us?
I think yes - there is a force out there that says, more than anything, "the more you seek the more I hide", this force is truth with a capital "T".
I'm also having trouble reckoning this idea of entanglement. What does it look like? How can two atoms, once seperated, still function as one unit? It's still unclear what entanglement really is, is there a change within the atoms that link them somehow? Or is the word entanglement just a word used to describe the observed phenomena, and we don't really have any idea of what causes the atoms to stay connected. Regardless, it defies our foundational laws that data/info can occur faster than the speed of light, if these atoms change each other simultaneously. Perhaps we need to return to our original ideas of spacetime and reconsider our assumptions that space and time can be plotted on a chronological graph.
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