Re:Quantum theorem shakes foundations
by othermaciej on Friday November 18, 2011 @02:37AM
(#3250983)
Two quantum particles can interact with each other without either's wavefunction collapsing. That's pretty much what makes the double slit experiment work. It seems that generally, interacting with a "macroscopic" object tends to collapse the wave function. You can find an interesting discussion of one way scientists try to explain this phenomenon here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_decoherence
> The conundrum is what is it about measuring that collapses the waveform? It is quite a mystery, and, honestly, very exciting.
Isn't it obviously the fact that it's interacting with another object?
- wave-function interacts with your wall/measuring-device -> wave-function collapses into a point (or: disappears and spawns a new wave-function at said point (which we end up interpreting as the "position" of the particle))
- wave-function doesn't interact with anything -> happily keeps propagating as a wave