Category Archives: Quantum Theory

Q: What is the Planck length? What is it’s relevance?

Physicist: Physicists are among the laziest and most attractive people in the world, and as such don’t like to spend too much time doing real work.  In an effort to streamline equations “natural units” are used.  The idea behind natural … Continue reading

Posted in -- By the Physicist, Particle Physics, Physics, Quantum Theory | Leave a comment

Q: Why is Schrodinger’s cat both dead and alive? Is this not a paradox?

One of the original questions was: A basic rule of logic is that something cannot contradict itself. It is impossible for P to be true and not true. Doesn’t Schrödinger’s cat violate this law and therefore invalidate logic? Physicist: The … Continue reading

Posted in -- By the Physicist, Logic, Physics, Quantum Theory | 18 Comments

Q: Does quantum mechanics really say that there’s some probability that objects will suddenly start moving or that things can suddenly “shift” to the other side of the universe?

Physicist: In a word; nope. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is a statement about how “certain” some combinations of quantities can be.  The most commonly referenced is the “position and velocity” version of the Uncertainty Principle, that says that the more … Continue reading

Posted in -- By the Physicist, Physics, Quantum Theory, Relativity | 9 Comments

Q: What is quantum teleportation? Why can’t we use it to communicate faster than light?

Physicist: Contrary to its exciting name, quantum teleportation doesn’t involve any physical stuff suddenly disappearing and then reappearing somewhere else.  Instead it’s a cute, clever, technique for transferring an unknown quantum state of one system (usually a single particle) to … Continue reading

Posted in -- By the Physicist, Entropy/Information, Physics, Quantum Theory | 13 Comments

Q: Since all particles display wave-like characteristics, does that imply that one could use destructive wave interference to destroy or at least drastically change a particle?

Physicist: The wave-like property of particles allows you to do a lot of cute things with particles that would otherwise seem impossible, but making a particle disappear isn’t one of them.  You can use destructive interference to make it very … Continue reading

Posted in -- By the Physicist, Particle Physics, Physics, Quantum Theory | 2 Comments

Q: Two entangled particles approach a black hole, one falls in and the other escapes. Do they remain entangled? What about after the black hole evaporates?

Physicist: If all you had access to was the remaining particle, you’d never know the difference. The way entanglement is often described in popular media makes it sound like voodoo; there’s some kind of magical connection between two or more … Continue reading

Posted in -- By the Physicist, Physics, Quantum Theory | 6 Comments