Anybody have ideas about the double slit experiement with particles, how they react based on a human mind observing them? (page 5)

snare&racket

woops my wave became a particle...

double post...

Since on page 3 now, for any who are participating in this discussion, bottom of page 2 I linked a few real experiments and sources which affirm that the youtube video is accurate in how 'observing' the particles changes their behavior.

EndofMysteries

In addition to the others I posted on the bottom of page 2, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1998/02/980227055013.htm " In a study reported in the February 26 issue of Nature (Vol. 391, pp. 871-874), researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science have now conducted a highly controlled experiment demonstrating how a beam of electrons is affected by the act of being observed. The experiment revealed that the greater the amount of "watching," the greater the observer's influence on what actually takes place."

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

EoM, I'm well acquainted with the two slit experiment. I did a scan of the links and tried a word search, but didn't find what you described as far as the results of an experiment changing simply because there was or wasn't film in a camera:

"they then did it using the sensors and having them turned on, but just having the tape or the record feature turned off so it wouldn't record the data. When they did that so they couldn't see how the particles would shoot and what direction, it did the random chaotic pattern. When the sensors still turned on then recorded so they could analyze, it then went in a straight line as would be expected.

"So they used the measuring instrument in both cases, the only variable was if it was recorded or not. The record feature did not at all touch or interfere with it."

I was hoping to find an explanation for how they couldn't see the particles and what direction they went, yet they knew that there was a random chaotic pattern? How did they "know" without seeing? And the wave pattern isn't really random or chaotic, it's geometry and probability. The last link introduces the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and touches on several aspects of QM. I'm just not seeing this as anything as amazing as, say, Keyboard Cat.

Have I been blinded by the math such that I don't see QM as "wow" anymore? Now that I understand exactly how lasers and microwave ovens work, all the mystery and wonder is gone from life.

LOL... not really.

John_Mann

(So does the particle know if the record button is on or not ?)

Not! It's same thing to say light "knows" when you turn a switch on. But you can consider t he view that all matter has consciousness call panpsychism (or pan consciousness).

If panpsy is true, a switch have a rudimentar form of consciousness. This topic is considered in artificial intelligence stuff, that's something much more "spiritual" than QM.

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

I'm trying to find the sources for the Science Daily article. It seems to be a summation of an article in Nature that was based on research from Weizmann Institute. My searches aren't returning the source. This statement is puzzling:

"The quantum "observer's" capacity to detect electrons could be altered by changing its electrical conductivity, or the strength of the current passing through it."

Yet, it also says:

"Apart from "observing," or detecting, the electrons, the detector had no effect on the current."

Sounds contradictory.

cantleave

I am sure that Kate didn't mean to wind you up WOJ, I think she sometimes forgets that the conversation has a wider audience.

EndofMysteries

Billy's question, " I was hoping to find an explanation for how they couldn't see the particles and what direction they went, yet they knew that there was a random chaotic pattern? How did they "know" without seeing? "

The easiest way to explain is the video animation, if it's observed then whatever object they are firing them at leaves a mark. I 'think' the observation recorded is the path itself, if it's fired straight and it's observed and recorded the whole path is in a straight line and the board or target shows where they struck. If the path is not being observed then the target board shows it's being stuck in many other areas like the wave pattern.

EndofMysteries

billy, = here are some of the sources of the article from the science magazine....

http://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/less-than-whole-electronic-charges-confirmed

Anybody have ideas about the double slit experiement with particles, how they react based on a human mind observing them?

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