The great physicist, Richard Feynman, once said that if you claim to understand quantum physics, then you don’t understand quantum physics. Anyone who has studied it will tell you that it is bizarre, unfathomable and completely counter-intuitive.
One of the strange issues is the wave-particle duality of fundamental ‘particles’ such as electrons and photons. When measured one way, these things will appear to be particles. When measured using different types of equipment, they will appear to be waves!
The mathematical descriptions of both states exist, simultaneously. The image below shows how this can be – when viewed from one perspective, it’s a 6. When viewed from another, it’s a 9.
The interesting thing about the above image is that it demonstrates the wave-particle duality idea quite well. However, there is a third perspective – the one we use to view the image. We can see both perspectives at the same time.
The problem with quantum physics is that this third perspective has not yet been found. We can only view fundamental particles from one of two perspectives – but not the ‘simultaneous’ view.
I suspect that this is also tied into the famous ‘double slit’ experiment. This is the experiment where electrons and photons can generate interference patterns on a screen, even when there is no obvious wave interaction.
If, or when, we finally find this third perspective, the double slit experiment results will become much clearer.
Gotta lurve quantum physics…
Ciao,
Mike.
Mike Murphy's Blog 