Post by Maddad on May 31, 2005 11:51:33 GMT -6
www.discover.com/issues/jun-05/cover/
Discover magazine's cover this month has a four page article with Sir Roger Penrose asking why he cannot be in two places at once, if an electron can be. I think I figured it out earlier this month, but didn't decide to write it up until last night.
As a bonus, the idea explains from a quantum mechanics viewpoint why mass exhibits the property of gravity.
www.maddad.org/two-place-electron.doc
In case you cannot read a Word document, I'm pasting it here:
Two Place Electron
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Response to June 2005 Discover Article
“If an Electron Can Be in Two Places at Once, Why Can’t You?”
Sir Roger Penrose asks why he cannot be in two places at once, if an electron can be. Quantum mechanics allows an electron or any small particle to be in a great many different places at once, not just two. Asking the question for two places for an electron is reasonable because it focuses our thinking.
Observation localizes the cloud of locations in which an electron probably exists from any place to one single place. What though is observation? When Penrose observes an electron, he interacts with it as part of the rest of the nearby universe.
Penrose also may be either here or there. The probability cloud of both Penrose and the electron may localize when they overlap. Since localization is more likely when the probability cloud overlap is greater, we expect the electron to localize near him. It still may localize some distance further away, but it will appear more often near him. Because the electron is close to the observer Penrose with many particles of his own, the electron has that many more chances to localize.
The approximately 10^29 (100 billion billion billion) particles that make up Penrose are constantly observing each other, their individual probability clouds overlapping each other. These particles therefore localize near each other. While he has many particles, each one able to localize an appreciable distance away from him, most of them would have to localize at this distance for him to change his location. Although any one particle is capable of doing so, the chances of most of them localizing a visible distance away, in the same direction, at the same time, is vanishingly small.
While it is possible for any one of his particular particles to localize this way, the chance of most of them doing so adds 29 zeros to the probability against the event. If the chance to make the jump for any one particle was 10^12 (million million) against the occurrence, unlikely but certainly possible, then the chance would be 10^41 (100 thousand billion billion billion billion) against the macro-particle aggregate called Sir Roger Penrose to make the jump. He therefore stays put.
There is one more implication in this reasoning. For an observer with many more particles than Penrose and therefore many more particle probability clouds, other particles or aggregates of particles will tend to localize closer to this megapenrose. The more particles megapenrose has, meaning the more massive it is, the more likely other particles and aggregates are to localize near it. These aggregates are more likely to jump their localization in the direction of megapenrose, so we would observe the aggregates moving towards it. Since probability clouds overlap more often when the objects are closer, they would move together faster when they are closer. Because quantum mechanics allows tiny particles to be in more than one place at the same time, it also allows the interpretation of these results as gravity acting between the objects.
Discover magazine's cover this month has a four page article with Sir Roger Penrose asking why he cannot be in two places at once, if an electron can be. I think I figured it out earlier this month, but didn't decide to write it up until last night.
As a bonus, the idea explains from a quantum mechanics viewpoint why mass exhibits the property of gravity.
www.maddad.org/two-place-electron.doc
In case you cannot read a Word document, I'm pasting it here:
Two Place Electron
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Response to June 2005 Discover Article
“If an Electron Can Be in Two Places at Once, Why Can’t You?”
Sir Roger Penrose asks why he cannot be in two places at once, if an electron can be. Quantum mechanics allows an electron or any small particle to be in a great many different places at once, not just two. Asking the question for two places for an electron is reasonable because it focuses our thinking.
Observation localizes the cloud of locations in which an electron probably exists from any place to one single place. What though is observation? When Penrose observes an electron, he interacts with it as part of the rest of the nearby universe.
Penrose also may be either here or there. The probability cloud of both Penrose and the electron may localize when they overlap. Since localization is more likely when the probability cloud overlap is greater, we expect the electron to localize near him. It still may localize some distance further away, but it will appear more often near him. Because the electron is close to the observer Penrose with many particles of his own, the electron has that many more chances to localize.
The approximately 10^29 (100 billion billion billion) particles that make up Penrose are constantly observing each other, their individual probability clouds overlapping each other. These particles therefore localize near each other. While he has many particles, each one able to localize an appreciable distance away from him, most of them would have to localize at this distance for him to change his location. Although any one particle is capable of doing so, the chances of most of them localizing a visible distance away, in the same direction, at the same time, is vanishingly small.
While it is possible for any one of his particular particles to localize this way, the chance of most of them doing so adds 29 zeros to the probability against the event. If the chance to make the jump for any one particle was 10^12 (million million) against the occurrence, unlikely but certainly possible, then the chance would be 10^41 (100 thousand billion billion billion billion) against the macro-particle aggregate called Sir Roger Penrose to make the jump. He therefore stays put.
There is one more implication in this reasoning. For an observer with many more particles than Penrose and therefore many more particle probability clouds, other particles or aggregates of particles will tend to localize closer to this megapenrose. The more particles megapenrose has, meaning the more massive it is, the more likely other particles and aggregates are to localize near it. These aggregates are more likely to jump their localization in the direction of megapenrose, so we would observe the aggregates moving towards it. Since probability clouds overlap more often when the objects are closer, they would move together faster when they are closer. Because quantum mechanics allows tiny particles to be in more than one place at the same time, it also allows the interpretation of these results as gravity acting between the objects.
