Re:A clock that can detect tiny shifts in the flow of time i...
by fragsworth on Monday November 03, 2014 @04:51PM
(#8553775)
> Isn't it possible for the astronaut to also know whether the other person has opened their box? If yes, then this is where the analogy breaks down.
The answer is no, and so the analogy doesn't break down. You can't observe the other person except by speed-of-light information transfer.
Re:A clock that can detect tiny shifts in the flow of time i...
by tiglionabbit on Tuesday November 04, 2014 @01:10AM
(#8555343)
I asked a similar question on physics stack exchange a few years ago, but I haven't seen a definitive answer.
http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/8708/can-observat...
If you ran two two-slit experiments on entangled particle pairs, shouldn't you be able to detect if your counterpart was observing theirs?
Re:A clock that can detect tiny shifts in the flow of time i...
by Osmium on Monday November 03, 2014 @05:16PM
(#8553922)
> Isn't it possible for the astronaut to also know whether the other person has opened their box?
How would you know without observing the particle yourself? In which case, how do you know if it collapsed because of your observation or the other person's?
Not an expert by any means, but from what I'm told you can't use it to transmit information, so that's how I think of it.
I'm probably mistaken, because if this were possible, then you could use it as a 1-bit communication. "If you detect that I've opened my box, then blow up the moon. Otherwise, do nothing."
Time to re-study quantum mechanics... It's strange how easy it is to forget almost everything just by not thinking about it for two years. MIT OCW had some pretty great online courses on the subject.