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Re: Schrodinger's Cat
Posted:
Feb 21, 2013 1:16 PM
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On Thu, 21 Feb 2013 07:09:29 -0600, Marvin the Martian wrote:
> On Wed, 20 Feb 2013 12:18:46 -0800, M Purcell wrote:
>> Here, kitty, kitty.
>>
>> http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=bringing-schrodingers-
> quantum-cat-to-life
>
> I don't particularly like Scientific American because it is too
> political and deceptive.
Why whatever do you mean Marvin?
"The mystery about the quantum-classical transition stems from a crucial
quality of quantum particles?... As such, they can be described by a wave
function, which Schrödinger devised in 1926. A sort of quantum Social
Security number, the wave function incorporates everything there is to
know about a particle, summing up its range of all possible positions and
movements."
Gosh! I've studied Quantum Mechanics (under Yang and Mills no less) and
do you know what? I've never heard that Schrodinger wave functions were
a "quantum Social Security" number! In fact, I didn't know that SS
numbers "incorporate everything there is to know about a person". Sounds
like the arrival of that feared Citizen ID number that follows everyone
from birth to death. No wonder Sam Wormley finds SciAm to be the
"ultimate" reference for all things scientific (after Wikipedia, natch).
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