I've got the first of the explanatory videos up. Randy and I have talked about putting up videos to help explain what is going on in the experiments for almost a year now. It can be really hard for someone to visualize what's happening in the experiments for the paradoxes just from our description. I've even found that in writing descriptions: the more precise someone describes something, the harder it is for someone else to understand it.
That's just not how we talk.
Unfortunately, the vaguer the description the more easily the listener misconstrues what is being said. And it turns out it's not an easy needle to thread: it takes many years for someone to be able to reliably read a geometrical description of a problem without getting confused.
But never fear, video is here! I can draw out what I want to talk about for you, as I have in this video.
Monday, July 6, 2015
Thursday, July 2, 2015
Measurement and Compensation
Unfortunately, I deleted much of the intro. I'll fix it later.
e-mail me if this is still here after September. Thanks!
In this episode, we talk about Aharonov and Rohrlich's Quantum Paradoxes, chapter 8: "Measurement and Compensation":
Please comment on our subreddit! It will help us respond to what you're saying if we can collect all the comments in the same place.
We're reading Quantum Paradoxes by Yakir Aharonov and Daniel Rohrlich. This is a technical book that is making an argument for a specific interpretation of quantum theory. The first half of the book uses paradoxes to explore the meaning of quantum theory and describe its mathematics, then after interpretations are discussed in the middle chapter, an interpretation of quantum mechanics is explored with paradoxes based on weak quantum measurements.
e-mail me if this is still here after September. Thanks!
In this episode, we talk about Aharonov and Rohrlich's Quantum Paradoxes, chapter 8: "Measurement and Compensation":
Please comment on our subreddit! It will help us respond to what you're saying if we can collect all the comments in the same place.
We're reading Quantum Paradoxes by Yakir Aharonov and Daniel Rohrlich. This is a technical book that is making an argument for a specific interpretation of quantum theory. The first half of the book uses paradoxes to explore the meaning of quantum theory and describe its mathematics, then after interpretations are discussed in the middle chapter, an interpretation of quantum mechanics is explored with paradoxes based on weak quantum measurements.
Monday, June 22, 2015
Early Edition Is Up!
I finally got Show 8 mostly edited and uploaded to Patreon. As per my promise there, I won't publish it here for a day or two, but I've got both of those working. Last month I tried to put up the special discussion we had on quantum interpretations and had a lot of problems for no known reason. Now that I've got that working, I'll try putting that up again in about two weeks. Show 8 is the first show that goes up early, so I wanted to inform people that I'd made the Patreon feed work the way it's supposed to. This is the last time I'll post about Patreon here unless there is some important change.
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Quantum Measurements
How can you measure the velocity?
Randy and Jim discuss how difficult it is to measure quantities like velocity in quantum mechanics. In doing so they discuss von Neumann's five-requirement theory of quantum measurement and a mathematical treatment of the measuring process that involves a quantum mechanical treatment of the measuring device and the interaction between it and the system under measurement. In this episode, we talk about Aharonov and Rohrlich's Quantum Paradoxes, chapter 7: "Quantum Measurement."
Please comment on our subreddit! It will help us respond to what you're saying if we can collect all the comments in the same place.
We're reading Quantum Paradoxes by Yakir Aharonov and Daniel Rohrlich. This is a technical book that is making an argument for a specific interpretation of quantum theory. The first half of the book uses paradoxes to explore the meaning of quantum theory and describe its mathematics, then after interpretations are discussed in the middle chapter, an interpretation of quantum mechanics is explored with paradoxes based on weak quantum measurements.
Randy and Jim discuss how difficult it is to measure quantities like velocity in quantum mechanics. In doing so they discuss von Neumann's five-requirement theory of quantum measurement and a mathematical treatment of the measuring process that involves a quantum mechanical treatment of the measuring device and the interaction between it and the system under measurement. In this episode, we talk about Aharonov and Rohrlich's Quantum Paradoxes, chapter 7: "Quantum Measurement."
We're reading Quantum Paradoxes by Yakir Aharonov and Daniel Rohrlich. This is a technical book that is making an argument for a specific interpretation of quantum theory. The first half of the book uses paradoxes to explore the meaning of quantum theory and describe its mathematics, then after interpretations are discussed in the middle chapter, an interpretation of quantum mechanics is explored with paradoxes based on weak quantum measurements.
Thursday, April 16, 2015
New Things to Play With
Alright!
Sorry about the tardiness of the last post. I was in a rush to upload the previous one before Easter break, and I found out that I screwed up the upload somehow and so I couldn't get your post up while I was away. Then, after I got back to NOLA, I had a lot of other things to do for the end of the semester and so even though I got the podcast uploaded to Podomatic, I didn't get any blogging stuff done.
But today, I got two things up and running. The first is our YouTube page, which will feature supplementary videos about the things we're discussing. I'll get that in better order over the summer.
The second is our Patreon account, which has been waiting for a video to explain what the whole Patreon thing is. So now you have the option to help us out directly if you want to.
Sorry about the tardiness of the last post. I was in a rush to upload the previous one before Easter break, and I found out that I screwed up the upload somehow and so I couldn't get your post up while I was away. Then, after I got back to NOLA, I had a lot of other things to do for the end of the semester and so even though I got the podcast uploaded to Podomatic, I didn't get any blogging stuff done.
But today, I got two things up and running. The first is our YouTube page, which will feature supplementary videos about the things we're discussing. I'll get that in better order over the summer.
The second is our Patreon account, which has been waiting for a video to explain what the whole Patreon thing is. So now you have the option to help us out directly if you want to.
Nonlocality and Causality
What's the best way to describe a physical system?
Jim and Randy discuss Aharonov and Rohrlich's proposal to use two axioms based upon the behavior of quantum mechanical particles that they discussed in the previous episodes:
(1) Interactions between quantum mechanical particles are nonlocal. (2) Interactions between quantum mechanical particles are causal. This is in contrast to the more mathematical Dirac-von Neumann axioms: (1) The observables of a quantum system are defined to be the self-adjoint operators that operate of state defined in a Hilbert space. (2) A state of the system is a set of probability amplitudes for results of orthogonal* experiments that define the Hilbert space. (3) The expectation value of an observable of a system is the average of the values of each observable weighted by the square of the probability amplitudes of the system's state. Aharanov and Rohrlich give us five distinct paradoxes that illustrate how to use nonlocality and causality to make predictions about the behavior of a system and the necessity for another modular variable: the modular energy. In this episode, we talk about Aharonov and Rohrlich's Quantum Paradoxes, chapter 6: "Nonlocality and Causality."
Please comment on our subreddit! It will help us respond to what you're saying if we can collect all the comments in the same place.
We're reading Quantum Paradoxes by Yakir Aharonov and Daniel Rohrlich. This is a technical book that is making an argument for a specific interpretation of quantum theory. The first half of the book uses paradoxes to explore the meaning of quantum theory and describe its mathematics, then after interpretations are discussed in the middle chapter, an interpretation of quantum mechanics is explored with paradoxes based on weak quantum measurements. * A state that is orthogonal is
Jim and Randy discuss Aharonov and Rohrlich's proposal to use two axioms based upon the behavior of quantum mechanical particles that they discussed in the previous episodes:
We're reading Quantum Paradoxes by Yakir Aharonov and Daniel Rohrlich. This is a technical book that is making an argument for a specific interpretation of quantum theory. The first half of the book uses paradoxes to explore the meaning of quantum theory and describe its mathematics, then after interpretations are discussed in the middle chapter, an interpretation of quantum mechanics is explored with paradoxes based on weak quantum measurements. * A state that is orthogonal is
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Modular Variables
The heavy hitting starts this month with the introduction of modular variables.
Randy and Jim wrap their heads around a diffraction paradox invented by Aharonov to help us understand why it is that Einstein's paradoxes, which were about the behavior of small, quantum particles, were solved by Bohr using the uncertainty principle on the apparatus instead of the particle itself. He uses a diffraction grating instead of a double slit experiment because an effectively infinite number of repeating openings in a regular array is easier to analyze than a small number of openings. In doing this, Aharovov formulates what he calls the "complete uncertainty principle" which produces a relatively straightforward physical reason for the uncertainty principle -- although it requires some very specialized mathematics. Keep your eyes on the physics because the math will get you if you don't watch out
. In this episode, we talk about Aharonov and Rohrlich's Quantum Paradoxes, chapter 5: "Modular Variables".
Please comment on our subreddit! It will help us respond to what you're saying if we can collect all the comments in the same place.
We're reading Quantum Paradoxes by Yakir Aharonov and Daniel Rohrlich. This is a technical book that is making an argument for a specific interpretation of quantum theory. The first half of the book uses paradoxes to explore the meaning of quantum theory and describe its mathematics, then after interpretations are discussed in the middle chapter, an interpretation of quantum mechanics is explored with paradoxes based on weak quantum measurements.
Randy and Jim wrap their heads around a diffraction paradox invented by Aharonov to help us understand why it is that Einstein's paradoxes, which were about the behavior of small, quantum particles, were solved by Bohr using the uncertainty principle on the apparatus instead of the particle itself. He uses a diffraction grating instead of a double slit experiment because an effectively infinite number of repeating openings in a regular array is easier to analyze than a small number of openings. In doing this, Aharovov formulates what he calls the "complete uncertainty principle" which produces a relatively straightforward physical reason for the uncertainty principle -- although it requires some very specialized mathematics. Keep your eyes on the physics because the math will get you if you don't watch out
. In this episode, we talk about Aharonov and Rohrlich's Quantum Paradoxes, chapter 5: "Modular Variables".
We're reading Quantum Paradoxes by Yakir Aharonov and Daniel Rohrlich. This is a technical book that is making an argument for a specific interpretation of quantum theory. The first half of the book uses paradoxes to explore the meaning of quantum theory and describe its mathematics, then after interpretations are discussed in the middle chapter, an interpretation of quantum mechanics is explored with paradoxes based on weak quantum measurements.
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