Consciousness Videos

What Is the Wave Function? – Instant Egghead #50



Scientific American

At the heart of quantum mechanics is a mysterious equation known as the wave function. It helps explain the behavior of elementary particles, but also challenges the notion that there’s only one reality. Scientific American editor Michael Moyer explains.

More to explore:

Bringing Schrödinger’s Cat to Life (Scientific American)
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=bringing-schrodingers-quantum-cat-to-life&WT.mc_id=SA_sciamerican_meta

Can Quantum Bayesianism Fix the Paradoxes of Quantum Mechanics? [Preview] (Scientific American)
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=can-quantum-beyesnism-fix-paradoxes-quantum-mechanics&WT.mc_id=SA_sciamerican_meta

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38 thoughts on “What Is the Wave Function? – Instant Egghead #50
  1. The wave function does not make sense using the laws of modern physics because the theory of everything has not been found. Just because we cannot explain wave function through parallel universes does not mean it doesn't exist. This is where you've perceived Schrödinger's cat experiment incorrectly. He did not want this experiment to be perceived through the lens of modern physics (because we cannot yet tie together quantum physics and modern physics), he wanted you to perceive it completely from a quantum perspective (which is obviously a world we don't live in, hence we can't comprehend how a cat could be alive or dead at the same time), and in the quantum world the cat can be alive and dead without needing there to be a parallel universe. Our world cannot (modern physics) cannot exist within the quantum realm because it is made up of the quantum realm, we just haven't tied together exactly how that is, which is why physicists are trying to obtain the theory of everything.

  2. Can the wave function not exist and the cat be dead and alive at the same time instead of either or? 🤔 Or do you have to be Zen Buddhist for that to happen? 😁

  3. It's just nonsense, if you point that out, people say you are not smart enough to understand it.

    Things like this are made up by smart people that are not smart enough to come up with anything useful

  4. Great job! What about the "measurement problem"? At some point the cat, or your "wave function" must be measured in order to prove either their condition, or even existance. Measuring things like smell, movement, or the cat's vital signs will do nicely, while any measureable detection of the theoretical waves you speak of will suffice as well. That pesky Einstein reigned havoc on Schrodinger. Ultimately, you'll "have to" measure in order to know things.   Thank your sir!

  5. ψ(r,t)=1√(2πℏ)³ ∫ d³ pe-rp/ℏΦ(p,t)…where does this equation originate from?, I cannot find anything on it outside of this video. I would really like to know.

  6. Why can't the cat be in a state of both alive and dead? The superpositional wave function applies to all entities, and the macroscopic, classical world is derived from quantum mechanics, and not the other way around.

  7. So the theory of wave collapse is fine so long as another universe exists for the cat to inhabit. How silly is that. The cat is not both alive and dead and the observer is not it's executioner, the universe in which we live is clearly deterministic in that sense. Cat is dead or alive.

  8. Wave function probability is the world of all possibilities its impartial and doesn't assume it encompasses all availability observations collapses or reduces possibilities down to a single point of what is seen n measured when you cant communicate with a loved you can assume a number of possibilities even get consumed with the ideas of certain possibilities but you dont know for sure until you can get in touch with them

  9. This is bullshit.

    When you’re not looking
    this post is written in Greek
    and an infinite number of other languages.
    all at the same time.

    However when you observe this post
    it becomes English.

  10. I'm confused. He was talking about measuring two different electrons then suddenly his explanation talked about one electron in 2 states. Can anyone clear it up for me.

  11. What if an "observation" is really when there becomes a causal link between the states of two particles. So, if particle A could be in any state (defined as a wave), and particle B the same, neither collapses because they could each co-exist in any combination of states. But the moment a structure is set up such that the state of A has a causal consequence whereby B must be in another state, then both collapse. So, an 'observer' is a bundle of causally connected states and when it 'observes' a particle that causes all kinds of interdependent states to fall in line. This maintains causal consistency. Secondly, it could be that collapse never happens, but 'universes' are more like looking at a kaleidoscope or crystal from one position or another. If you look at it from the 'angle' where A is in state 1, then B will always look to be in state 3. But if you looked at it from an angle where A was in state 7, then B would look to be in state 4, and so on. The whole universe is one static crystal of interconnected overlapping states, but all of them can only appear in one consistently causal state in relationship to one another at a time. And, it is our memories which define which 'angle' we are locked into. Thus, there aren't multiple universes – just one multi-dimensional universe, of which we can only observe one part of and angle on.

  12. What this video describes alone, wouldn't be very astounding. You would simply say that the wave function represents our limited knowledge about a pre-existing truth. They left out the thing that makes QM maddening and mind-boggling – that Bell's Theorem has proven that no hidden variables could exist*. In other words, it is not possible that the electron is truly in one state or another prior to being measured, and no underlying physics are responsible for producing such a state – it is not like when the weather man says there is a 20% chance of rain – it is instead *truly random. And, simply the possibility that a conscious mind could determine an electron's position from the detectors which didn't interfere with it, make the wave function collapse.

  13. wow cool stuff! OK here's my question as a layperson who doesn't understand science very well; Noble gases such as neon, argon, xenon and radon have a full set of "valence electrons" – how do you know all those electron are there if when you observe them they collapse the wave function? Do all the electrons collapse? What's going on there?

  14. The welcome mat to the multi-verse.  Just goes to show that sometimes being able to explain something is overrated.  Many of us knew that their "had to be" a multi-verse years before this idea could be explained.

  15. Do you think it is logical that if the future is unfolding relative to the atoms, if we look down at the individual atoms we will find probability? This is an invitation to see a theory on the nature of time! In this theory we have an emergent uncertain future continuously coming into existence relative to the spontaneous absorption and emission of photon energy. Within such a process the wave particle duality of light and matter in the form of electrons is forming a blank canvas that we can interact with forming the possible into the actual! The future is unfolding with each photon electron coupling or dipole moment relative to the atoms of the periodic table and the individual wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. As part of a universal process of energy exchange that forms the ever changing world of our everyday life the ‘past’ has gone forever. At the smallest scale of this process the ‘past’ is represented by anti-matter annihilation with the symmetry between matter and anti-matter representing the symmetry between the future and the past as the future unfolds photon by photon. In such a theory the mathematics of quantum mechanics represents the physics of ‘time’ with the classical physics of Newton representing processes over a period of time, as in Newton’s differential equations. In my videos I explain how this process is relative to temperature and the phase changes of matter.

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