The Crazy Australian

Are you confused yet?

If you enjoyed the videos I posted yesterday about relativity, you have (hopefully) been forced to think about some pretty weird stuff. If you didn’t enjoy the videos, you obviously didn’t watch them. Do it!

Luckily, we are only just scratching the surface of the stimulating weirdness that science offers. Yesterday we looked at Einstein’s Relativity. There’s heaps more to dig into in that area, but today we’re going to zoom in to the tiny world of Quantum mechanics (in a very basic way)

Are you made of particles or waves? Can something be both dead and alive at the same time? Why does it ‘pick’ a state when observed?
As with relativity, you’ll never need to understand this – but just imagine how cool and intelligent you could sound at a party. (“Oh yes, but as the concept of superposition tells us…”

These videos give a fun description of some weird quantum stuff (and the cartoon ‘professor’ might just be the weirdest of all).

Particles or waves? (This one gets weirder the further in you get) – 5mins

Is there space at all? -1min

Lastly, can a cat be both dead and alive at the same time?

“Schrödinger’s cat” is a kind of thought experiment. Imagine a cat is locked in a box (vegetarians: its ok, we’re just pretending) with a vial of acid and a radioactive atom. When the radioactive atom decays, it triggers a hammer that smashes the vial of acid – killing the cat.
The trick is this: when the atom decays is purely random. Say you left the box for an hour. When you came back, there would be a chance that the cat is dead, and a chance that it is still alive.
But according to quantum mechanics, the atom (until it is observed) has both decayed and not decayed. If you watched the first video above, this is like the electron passing through both slits.
So, until you open the box, the cat is both dead and alive. (more info)

Food for thought: To someone outside the room, even after the box has been opened, the whole room contains a cat that is both dead and alive. What about someone unaware of this person? When would this end? (Something omniscient?)

If you have some ‘dead time’ today (sitting on a bus, waiting for a friend, in the elevator of a very, very tall building), these could be interesting  things to throw around in your head.

The world is weird!
What is the weirdest thing about the world you can think of?

Don’t get too comfortable: the world is weird!

Two things that happen at the same time… happen at the same time, right?
Wrong (according to Einstein and most scientists today).
And if I drive past you, I see your time moving more slowly than mine… but you see my time flowing more slowly! What?

You will never need to understand Relativity. But if you enjoy trying to wrap your head around mind-blowing, confusing, and weird stuff, (and even if you don’t), then try to understand these:

Simultaneity:
 

Time:

If these have whet your appetite and you want to dig deeper into even weirder stuff, this site does a great job of explaining it. But keep this in mind:

Before leading an expedition to prove Einstein’s General Relativity, the physicist Sir Arthur Edington was asked “Is it true that only three people in the world understand relativity?”

Eddington reportedly responded, “Who’s the third?”

The world is weird!
What is the weirdest thing about the world you can think of? (Science or otherwise – maybe its your neighbours.)