Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: Harri on 04/04/2020 16:22:08
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Can the outcomes of wave-particle duality experiments be reflected in the world I observe and experience around me?
If so, does the universe I know and experience only exist because at every moment in space and time I am able to observe it?
Or does wave-particle duality theory only refer to the world of quantum?
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Can the outcomes of wave-particle duality experiments be reflected in the world I observe and experience around me?
Of course. If you can perform an experiment and measure the result then it is part of the reality around you.
If so, does the universe I know and experience only exist because at every moment in space and time I am able to observe it?
No, it has nothing to do with you, or anyone else, observing anything
Or does wave-particle duality theory only refer to the world of quantum?
to be honest, the idea of wave particle duality is just used to describe that in certain circumstances a wave or a particle can each appear to have the properties of either a wave or a particle. Although first described of light and then electrons, some very large molecules have been shown to behave with wave properties.
In theory any object will exhibit wave properties, but for really large objects eg a car the effect is so small as to be unobservable.
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So let's use the term 'particle.' According to wave-particle duality the particle is a wave of potential until it is observed. This then places the particle in a position in time and space. Does that mean all the other potentialities are still out there? Or does the wave however big totally collapse and along with it all the other potentialities?
And is it just 'pop' science that leads some people to believe that because of the possibility of multiple potentialities, there are potentially multiple me's, multiple universes??
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Duality is not real and has no implications for the behaviour of the universe. It simply means that we have two different mathematical models for describing and predicting the results of certain experiments. The art of physics and chemistry is knowing when to use which model. Generally the wave model tells you where things will happen, and the particle tells you what will happen and when.
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Can the outcomes of wave-particle duality experiments be reflected in the world I observe and experience around me?
Yes - the wave and particle nature of light has been observed over many centuries, and has had a vigorous debate over those centuries.
- The "winner" has swayed backwards and forwards over that time:
- Descartes explained refraction in terms of waves
- Newton argued that light was composed of particles
- Hooke & Huygens put the wave theory on a mathematical basis
- The Michelson-Morley experiment seemed to show that light could not be a wave (particles can travel through a vacuum, the familiar types of waves could not)
- As we now know, both ideas are correct; this synthesis happened in the early 1900s, through the work of Einstein, Bohr, Schroedinger & others
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light#Historical_theories_about_light,_in_chronological_order
One simple synthesis is "Light travels like a wave, but hits objects like a particle".
- So when you look at anything (eg a star), the light has spread out like a wave, following the inverse square law.
- When the light wave hits the lens of your eye, the wave is diffracted by the entire surface of the lens into a small area on your retina
- Within this small area, the light particle will hit a particular light-sensitive molecule in a particular rod cell in your retina, which will trigger an electrical signal to your brain
- So wave/particle duality applies to everything you see.
According to wave-particle duality the particle is a wave of potential until it is observed. ... there are potentially multiple me's, multiple universes??
The duality of light as a wave and a particle has been apparent for centuries.
- The possibility of "other me"s comes up in the possibility of an infinite universe - "if the universe is infinite in extent, won't there be other mes out there?". In principle, you could fly into space, and meet these other mes (if they weren't too far away).
- Whether the universe is infinite in size is still open; having infinite amount of matter seems less likely to me.
- But you are talking about the "Many Worlds hypothesis", proposed by Hugh Everitt in 1957.
- This does imply that there are many mes
- but separated from each other in different universes, so they don't meet each other.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Many-worlds_interpretation
If you want to know more about this hypothesis, I suggest you listen to Sean Carroll's Mindscape podcast.
- Sean Carroll does research into the Many Worlds Hypothesis (but the podcast ranges much wider than that)
You could start here: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2019/12/02/75-max-tegmark-on-reality-simulation-and-the-multiverse/
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I raised my original question after reading ATOM by PIERS BIZONY. I'm not a scientist or an academic so I'm not sure how quoting from books goes down but here goes. ' All the potential outcomes that the wave-particle could have delivered from its collapse are still 'out there' when we measure a particular particle. Twenty years ago, the idea of 'multiple universes' seemed a fantasy. Now it threatens to become scientifically necessary.' Now he doesn't actually say that he believes that, maybe he's just putting it out there? But that should shed some light on why I connected wave-particle duality with the possibility of multiple me's and universes.
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Can the outcomes of wave-particle duality experiments be reflected in the world I observe and experience around me?
The earliest two-slit experiment exhibits quite clearly the duality.
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I'm not a scientist or an academic so I'm not sure how quoting from books goes down but here goes. ' All the potential outcomes that the wave-particle could have delivered from its collapse are still 'out there' when we measure a particular particle.
We don't know that. I suppose that if it is really a collapse, then those other outcomes are not out there. Most of the interpretations that support collapse do not posit other outcomes 'out there' so to speak.
That still leaves identical copies of your self, which is statistically inevitable within a certain distance from here if there is no limit to that distance. Are those others also 'you'? It depends on how one defines 'you'. This goes down all sorts of fun holes about identity. A good read is 'personal identity', Parfit, 1975.
But that should shed some light on why I connected wave-particle duality with the possibility of multiple me's and universes.
Intuition says there is the one reality, but these experiment contradicted those intuitions. The interpretations that hold onto the one reality view get more and more complicated, while the less intuitive interpretations such as RSF (Everett's MWI, not DeWitt's MWI) become simpler and cleaner. The wave-particle duality is only a clue as to the actual nature of the underlying reality.
Most physicists to not say that light is both particle and wave. They say instead that it is neither, but at times it can behave like one or the other.