RE: The wave-particle duality of photons - physics explained
nice post to read! I think you could have stated more directly that light is neither a particle nor a wave. This point often confuses people, how could it be both? It simply is neither, just in some cases it could be approximated by a wave and in some by a particle. But there is never a conflict and there are cases where it behaves entirely different. It is only our limited classical mind that tries to put it into known categories.
Your picture of tiny cameras filming is misleading. The reason why an observation on the quantum level changes the result is that there is no measurement without interaction. And when there is an interaction a minimum amount of energy has to be transmitted. But because we are talking about quantum systems that will be an order 1 correction.
The picture of a tiny camera, a passive observer, therefore is not correct.
Another way to see it is that a gain of information is necessary connected to a collapse of the wave-function. The measurement interacts with the system to enforce that collapse.
Nicely said. As for the camera, every measurement impacts the thing that is measured because everything interacts with everything especially on the quantum level but I do not see it as misleading because I think my readers are smarter than thinking there is a giant eye watching the experiment like shown in the picture. It is there to better help the reader to understand the difference between what happens with no recording and with the recording. For everything else, there are reference links that a person can check to learn more. Thank you for your insightful comment.
i hope you do not overestimate your readers :) I once talked to somebody claiming that when doing the double slit and making a measurement at the slits and storing it on a computer, the pattern changes when the hard drive is erased, because now that information is no longer there.
The reason I mention this is because to many people the measurement affecting the experiment seems to be something almost mystical. But its not, it is just that we are approaching the minimum possible energy states and then there are no smaller energy states that could be used to measure them. Therefore it is obvious that the process of measurement changes the system and changes the outcomes. Of course this has numerous interesting philosophical consequences.
This is the funniest thing I have read this morning LOL :D :D :D
As for my readers, my optimism sometimes kills the realism but maybe it should because I am pretty satisfied with how my scientific texts are received regarding the comments and views people leave after reading them. People are open and even if they do not understand, they ask for more clarification and that is really nice, it shows interest.