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Word Gems 

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Quantum Mechanics

the Hollywood version of quantum mechanics is entertaining but not helpful to our understanding of reality

 

 

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Avengers Endgame (2019) Scott, Steve, and Natasha

"Has either of you ever studied quantum mechanics?"

"Only to make conversation."

 

Scott goes on to suggest that, if they could harness the quantum world’s characteristic of time manipulation, they could change the past.

But this is not true. The quantum realm, though many believe and preach otherwise, has nothing to do with time travel.

the popular, cinematic version of quantum mechanics will not help us with our investigation of science’s greatest mystery

When Tony Stark is asked for his input regarding the use of quantum mechanics (QM) to put right what went wrong when Thanos attacked, he begins to use terms such as “Planck’s” constant, “eigenstate,” and “the EPR paradox.”

Well, it’s fun, it all heightens the drama of the moment, and makes the “Infinity-Endgame” double feature one of the best action-movie productions of all time – however, the Hollywood version of QM will lead us astray.

we’re unaware of the effects of QM in our day-to-day world

Scott Lang explains QM as a microworld, a private universe of the very small. Well, yes, the effects of QM are most readily observed on the level of the ultra-miniscule, but QM affects everything, the whole universe at-large, even the “big” objects of the "normal" macro world.

It’s like saying that Einstein’s Relativity affects things only at the speed of light; which is not true. When you walk from the living room to the kitchen, Relativity affects the flow of time, but, at these “slow” speeds, the change is so minute that our feeble five senses cannot discern the difference.

and, unfortunately, politics enters the debate, as well

In the “evolution” report we learned that politics often muddies the waters of this scientific investigation. We’re dismayed to learn that it impacts QM, too. Why is this? We’ll talk about it as we get into this.

For now, if we truly desire to learn how QM works, we would do well to approach all this one step at a time, carefully considering each incremental advance.

good theatre, not good science

Hey, it’s Ant-Man in the tiny quantum realm! Pretty cool, eh? Well, not really, it’s not like that. Flashing lights and glitz make for good theatre but not good science. What’s the problem with all the mini-microbes and sub-atomic flotsam encountered down there”? Just this: None of it exists.

There is no tiny little quantum realm to visit. Why not? The quantum realm is a mathematical construct, it's about probability of things, an uncertainty of things, that might exist, could exist, but don’t yet exist, and 99.99999999% of it will never exist. There’s nothing to see there, because there is no “there.”

'there is no quantum world'

Editor's note: When asked about an underlying quantum world, Bohr would answer, “There is no quantum world. There is only an abstract quantum physical description. It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how nature is. Physics concerns what we can say about Nature.”

just a mathematical construct of probability

There’s a famous debate concerning the “spin” of entangled particles. The idea is, when one is up, the counterpart is down; or, if these were red and black colors, they would vary in succession, one color or the other. However, Niels Bohr, commenting on the alternation, said that the red and black don’t even exist until a measurement is taken.

They don’t exist because there is no quantum world "with hard edges" to visit. Before a particle enters our 3-D world, it’s all “probable particles,” just mathematical constructs with degrees of likelihood, that which might become 3-D reality.

Don't confuse this etheria with the actual domain of atomic particles comprising matter, which is much different... sort of different... not really different...

 

"Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real." Niels Bohr

"There is no matter as such." Max Planck

"The smallest units of matter are not physical objects in the ordinary sense." Werner Heisenberg

Whatever it's made of, "matter is not made of matter." Hans Peter Durr

 

 

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