Re:Physicists found a new quantum paradox that casts doubt o...
by GoblinSlayer on Monday August 31, 2020 @05:46AM
(#24329819)
>Coming back to physics, there's an assumption you and other commenters are silently making, which is that quantum mechanics is even applicable to macroscopic objects like humans.
It follows from schrodinger equation, it provides no exception for macroscopic objects. You can say quantum effects indeed happen at the lowest level, and macroscopic behavior follows what happens at the lowest level. It's a question of reducibility.
> The largest objects which have been shown to act wave-like are a few thousand atoms large.
Large objects have wave-like behavior, e.g. you can't determine their size with femtometer resolution, they don't suffer from ultraviolet catastrophe and have macroscopic quantum effects like superconductivity.
It follows from schrodinger equation, it provides no exception for macroscopic objects. You can say quantum effects indeed happen at the lowest level, and macroscopic behavior follows what happens at the lowest level. It's a question of reducibility.
> The largest objects which have been shown to act wave-like are a few thousand atoms large.
Large objects have wave-like behavior, e.g. you can't determine their size with femtometer resolution, they don't suffer from ultraviolet catastrophe and have macroscopic quantum effects like superconductivity.