Quantum physics just got less complicated

[Michael]

Quantum physics just got less complicated

Wave-particle duality and uncertainty have been fundamental concepts in quantum physics since the early 1900s. "We were guided by a gut feeling, and only a gut feeling, that there should be a connection," says Coles, who is now a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Quantum Computing in Waterloo, Canada.
It's possible to write equations that capture how much can be learned about pairs of properties that are affected by the uncertainty principle. Coles, Kaniewski and Wehner are experts in a form of such equations known as 'entropic uncertainty relations', and they discovered that all the maths previously used to describe wave-particle duality could be reformulated in terms of these relations.
"It was like we had discovered the 'Rosetta Stone' that connected two different languages," says Coles. "The literature on wave-particle duality was like hieroglyphics that we could now translate into our native tongue. We had several eureka moments when we finally understood what people had done," he says.

 

[fargonic]

Quantum physics just got less complicated

Well, that's a relief!

 

[crjmurray]

Oh good. I was getting worried.

 

[AV1611VET]

Oh good. I was getting worried.

LOL -- your signature is funny.

 

[crjmurray]

LOL -- your signature is funny.

Thanks AV!

 

[stevevw]

Quantum physics just got less complicated

So what does this mean. It seems its still as strange and contradictory as ever but now they want to put a simple explanation on quantum physics and wave action. It still means that a particle can possibly be in two different states at the same time. But now they are saying its the result of the one process. To me that makes it even harder too work out because there is nothing else that is causing this. Its all in the ability of a particle and its possibilities down at the micro level. To think that a particle can behave like this almost suggests some magical quality. Maybe there is more to what we see and beauty is in the mind of the beholder.

 

[Archie the Preacher]

Michael, I'm sure than when Og the Caveman found out he could move bigger rocks with a tree limb, thereby inventing the 'lever', another Caveman (probably also named Og, it was a popular name in those times) probably said something akin to 'So what?'.

I can't do the maths required, but I'll be keeping this discovery in mind. It is good news in the long run.

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Quantum physics just got less complicated

Well...they still have to reconcile this with the Theory of Relativity....

Until then, we can keep the Big Question Mark on our foreheads (i.e. Whodunnit?)

Peace

 

[Gracchus]

It has never been a duality. There were just two ways to describe it, one way convenient for some aspects but inconvenient for others, and vice-versa.