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fandomhigh2005-09-19 04:17 pm
ten-and-chips.livejournal.com) wrote in fandomhigh2005-09-19 04:17 pm
Quantum Physics 123: Monday 19 September
[comes in smiling, sets a sign on his desk that says 'Yarr.']
Hello class. Your homework from last class is due Right Now, so please pass it to the front. I already have work from Mr Baltar, Ms Hovalis, Ms Domino, and Lady Jessica. Thank you for getting it to me promptly. The rest of you have had five days to complete the assignment--I daresay that's enough time.
((OOC: Comment in the linked post with your homework by 12 AM EST, please.))
This class we are going to discuss Schroedinger's Cat, a famous theory that will hopefully help you understand the fluidity that is quantum physics. A cat (that is merely theoretical, do not call the RSPCA) is placed in a box. Attached to the box is a control containing a radioactive atom and poison gas. The atom has a 50% chance to decay in one hour. If that happens, the gas will be triggered and the cat will die.
However, in quantum physics, once the cat is placed in the box, where no one can observe it, some say the cat exists in a state of neither being dead nor alive--for our purposes, we'll use the term notalive. Only when the box is opened is the cat in one state or another. This common belief is called the Copenhagen interpretation.
Or take the Zen koan: 'If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?' The Copenhagen interpretation says that it would make a notsound.
Some forms of time travel therefore are based off the idea that once a person is unobserved, the person notexists, and therefore is in a quantum state--able to exist again at any observable point. Discuss these topics (NOT THE CRUELTY TO THE CAT, and yes, you will be graded on participation). No homework for Wednesday.
Hello class. Your homework from last class is due Right Now, so please pass it to the front. I already have work from Mr Baltar, Ms Hovalis, Ms Domino, and Lady Jessica. Thank you for getting it to me promptly. The rest of you have had five days to complete the assignment--I daresay that's enough time.
((OOC: Comment in the linked post with your homework by 12 AM EST, please.))
This class we are going to discuss Schroedinger's Cat, a famous theory that will hopefully help you understand the fluidity that is quantum physics. A cat (that is merely theoretical, do not call the RSPCA) is placed in a box. Attached to the box is a control containing a radioactive atom and poison gas. The atom has a 50% chance to decay in one hour. If that happens, the gas will be triggered and the cat will die.
However, in quantum physics, once the cat is placed in the box, where no one can observe it, some say the cat exists in a state of neither being dead nor alive--for our purposes, we'll use the term notalive. Only when the box is opened is the cat in one state or another. This common belief is called the Copenhagen interpretation.
Or take the Zen koan: 'If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?' The Copenhagen interpretation says that it would make a notsound.
Some forms of time travel therefore are based off the idea that once a person is unobserved, the person notexists, and therefore is in a quantum state--able to exist again at any observable point. Discuss these topics (NOT THE CRUELTY TO THE CAT, and yes, you will be graded on participation). No homework for Wednesday.