Quantum Mechanics: Alive, or just Improbable?

Question

Why is it that particles can defy logic, as in the Double-slit experiment? How can an electron go through two slots at once, and interfere with itself? And why, through the act of observing, does the result change? Are subatomic particles aware of their surroundings??

Are there multiple dimensions that we cannot comprehend, hyperspaces in which these quantum forces exist?

Answer 1

A subatomic "particle" traveling through space actually behaves like a wave, until it hits something. When it does, the equation of the wave describes the probability that the particle will hit in a particular place, the probability being equivalent to the amplitude of the wave. Passing through an aperture (such as the double slit) changes the wave equation so that it has a pattern of peaks and nulls. So the particle is "aware" of its surroundings insofar as it appears to exist in a considerable volume of space.

It gets stranger when you generate pairs of particles, as you can get "quantum entanglement", in which a measurement of one particle affects the other particle. All it really means is that our intuitive sense of physical reality doesn't work very well at the particle level.

Answer 2

There is no experience on the everyday, human scale that can give you an intuitive feel for what happens on the quantum scale. If you describe light or an electron as particles, it's not adequate. If you describe them as waves, that's not adequate either. They have some properties of each, depending on the conditions. Particles are not cognitively 'aware'. The electron isn't 'aware' that a proton is nearby, it is just influenced by the electric field.

Even most quantum physicists don't expect quantum mechanics to make sense. They just know how to make predictions and do calculations that work.