7858
@7858.eth
I have been thinking about this a bunch recently and researching it a bit, both without good effect I mean the observer effect, not the towel. I could use a little guidance What counts as observation? How does it play out if you make a cat observe? A fly? A camcorder? Is the effect binary or can some kinds of weak observation create semi-wave-semi-particle behavior? Assume I am clueless on the subject but will be able to carry myself forward with a curated list of articles or search terms
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7858
@7858.eth
It just feels like this is a practical joke. It has to be made up by physicists to test my gullibility. You’re trying to make me believe that my consciousness/measurement/recording is supposed to impact particle physics? Like the little magical fingers of the special light of my soul reaches out to collapse probability into outcome somehow? I will believe a lot, I am a fairly credulous person, but that is a bridge too fucking far
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Nico
@nicom
You are misinterpreting what the term "observer" means in quantum physics. In the double-slit experiment, the observer effect is not about human or animal observation. It doesn't matter if a person, a cat, or even your ficus plant looks at the result. The crucial point is whether there's a measurement or interaction that determines which slit the photon passes through. When the photon travels freely (unmeasured), it behaves as a wave and interferes with itself, creating an interference pattern. However, the moment you introduce a measurement device or sensor at the slits to determine through which slit the photon passes, this interaction collapses its wavefunction. This act of measurement, rather than the presence of the slits or a passive screen, is what is an "observation" in quantum mechanics and causes the loss of the interference pattern.
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Dean Pierce 👨💻🌎🌍
@deanpierce.eth
@nicom has some awesome explanations here, but to dumb it down a bit, "observer" in this context is basically someone blasting the target with a spotlight to get a good look at it. This affects the target. Measuring the momentum changes the position, and measuring the position changes the momentum. ✨uncertainty✨
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