Although Einstein developed the foundation for quantum physics he was uncomfortable with its implications. Einstein said famously “God does not play dice” or something to that effect. Since the most accurate and experimentally verified explanation of the universe is one that does so by describing events probabilistically it appears as though he she or it does play dice. Or probably plays dice. At least a few days a week.
A universe that has events occurring probabilistically is a much more interesting one in my opinion. And as far as we can tell so far it appears that this is so. In my last post I spoke about how electron’s locations were said to be potentially here and potentially there. The highest likelihood of finding it would be somewhere close to the nucleus but there would also be a small possibility of finding it a few light years away. What we didn’t speak about directly is the possibility of finding the electron in two places at once. One electron…existing in two (or more) places at once. This strange quality of the electron, as improbable as it sounds, occurs very easily and happens all the time in certain situations. The video below gives a great description of it:
The Double Slit Experiment Dr. Quantum
Physics calls this strange quality superposition. The double slit experiment was first conducted in 1801 by a man by the name of Thomas Young. Young conducted the experiment with photons and it has been repeated with all kinds of matter, including complex molecules comprised of hundreds of atoms.
Its a mad world!
