What exactly does that mean to you? Anybody with a degree is physics or quantum physics, think they could kind of break this down for me?
2007-08-11 07:52:55 · 6 answers · asked by lovebug512 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Out of context, this is a meaningless statement. It is false and has nothing to do with quantum physics. Maybe it's talking about perception. Most likely it's just talking nonsense.
2007-08-11 08:44:25 · answer #1 · answered by Frank N 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Well, sort of. It's not the mind doing the shaping, it's the act of measurement.
You're describing the process known as "collapsing the wave function." It is an outgrowth of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, and is perhaps best illustrated in the thought experiment known as "Schroedinger's Cat."
Heisenberg said that you can't ever know with complete accuracy both the velocity and the position of any quantum particle. The more precisely you measure one, the less precisely you can know the other. The corollary to that principle is that it's not just how much you can or can't know, it's that the act of measurement itself actually affects that which is measured.
Which takes us to Schroedinger. If a quantum event has a probability of exactly 50% of happening within a given amount of time, its actual state can't be determined without a measurement. That is, it's wave function is undetermined. The act of measurement forces the event into one of its two possible states, "collapsing the wave function." Following the corollary above, it simultaneously existed - literally - in both states until the measurement forced it to pick one.
Another good example of observation method determining the nature of the outcome is the quantum double-slit experiment - wherein a photon behaves as either a particle or a wave (in mutually-exclusive ways) depending on which one your measurement can detect.
2007-08-11 14:47:59 · answer #2 · answered by skeptik 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is not out of context. It is just plain, 100% wrong.
No mind is required for quantum mechanics to work, and your mind has as much chance of altering a quantum state as it does of forcing the lottery balls to fall on your numbers.
2007-08-11 09:10:23 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The mind has nothing to do with it. An "observation" is simply any interaction with something outside the system itself.
2007-08-11 08:15:18 · answer #4 · answered by ZikZak 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This is "pop science," not true physics. Metaphysics, not physics. New age stuff.
2007-08-11 08:27:13 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Wow I totally agree
2007-08-11 07:55:15 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋