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Literally exactly how it works, too. (thelemmy.club)

submitted 1 week ago by ivanafterall@lemmy.world to c/science_memes@mander.xyz

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[-] Quibblekrust 5 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Well, no. Not if you put a detector in one of the slits. It collapses the wave function, and the interference pattern disappears. The meme is a joke that your eyeballs are the detector, which is not true.

I was making a bit of a joke myself to get people to think about when the collapse actually happens. It could occur as late as when you look at the screen, and you can't prove otherwise. You know... like, "is the moon still there when you're not looking at it?" Except for real.

[-] Bluescluestoothpaste@sh.itjust.works 1 points 6 days ago

Well that's basically the bohr-einstsein problem isnt it?

[-] Quibblekrust 2 points 5 days ago

Not exactly. At least I don't think. Einstein didn't believe in quantum mechanics at all, or that it was inherently random until measured. Bohr said it was, but I don't think he necessarily equated conscious observation with measurement. Einstein believed there must be hidden variables, but if there are, they're non-local.

[-] Bluescluestoothpaste@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

So, really the problem was about Einstein saying that if Bohr is right then there is information moving faster than the speed of light. Einstein wasn't saying that he didn't believe it, but rather if true, then it violated the speed of light in a vacuum. Bohr seemed to actually not understand what Einstein was trying to say, so he interpreted it as Einstein trying to tell him he was wrong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIk_0AW5hFU

I think you're right that Einstein's instincts wanted QM to be wrong, but he couldn't argue with the math and experimental results.