h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Schrodinger, Superposition, Entanglement and other Strange Things - A1021942
Author: Atlantic_Cable - U196159

Constructive critism welcomed and as always spelling errors and corrections are welcome.

Hi there AC.

Two major criticisms, and a couple of other suggestions.

I'm pretty sure that the uncertainty principle is not directly involved in Schrodinger's paradox. The uncertainty principle says you can't accurately measure both position and momentum. The cat paradox is to do with the development and collapse of the wave function.

In the orbit of the planets - relativity and quantum mechanics are quite different - and it's relativistic, not quantum mechanical, effects that affect the orbit of Mercury.

The section on entanglement could mention the EPR thought experiment, and the gameshow section should mention the Bell-Aspect experiments.

Noggin

Thanks, but you'll have to tell me what those experiments are.

Can't talk about the content of the entry, although I've heard of Schrodinger's cat, however I am a good spell-checker.

spped >speed

arguement > argument

(Not looking out specifically for them, mind you!)

I like this, but it needs a fair bit of editing.

I think you to need to explain why the cat experiment is so important. After reading the entry I could say "yeah so what? you put a cat and radioactive source in a box, and an hour later it's either dead or alive, but you don't know which until you open it. Now do something clever"

You need to explain why quantum theory is believed to be a correct description of reality; why it predicts a superposition of alive cat/dead cat; and how this can be interpreted.

You've made a good start, but it's very vague and incomplete, and as noggin said you've muddled it with other things with are not involved.

More comments:

Isn't it Heisenberg?

"quantum mechanics started by Einstein, Heisenburg" I think einstein is some way down the list (he was famous for his opposition to some areas of quantum theory), maybe mention some other names (Planck, Pauli, de Broglie etc)

"Experiments have placed "massive" objects into superposition..." This is not a good description. It doesn't explain what experiments have done or why the results are significant.

How is a 'parallel' universe at 90 degrees to our reality? surely this is a perpendicular universe. Maybe mention that both these terms are metaphors.

The gameshow bit is irrelevant. Cut it out.

This is a tricky subject to tackle, I admire you for trying and this could be the start of a good entry. But I get the impression you either don't fully understand the physics, or have written it quickly without fully thinking it through. If you need more help I can try to explain things in more detail, and there are plenty of other physics nerds on h2g2 who can do the same.

MP

(From the entry)

"Schrodinger was trying to show that there is no "nice" barrier between the quantum and classical physical worlds. The quantum affects even very large things, like cats."

You might like to mention that the conclusion only follows through in one interpretation of the theory. There are other interpretations which lead to different results. I think there are even other theories about when the reduction of the state vector happens. At the point of observation is one theory, but others have suggested less subjective possibilities. I'm not sure what the state of play is about this.

"If you think that's stupid, talk to Maryln vos Savant, the smartest person alive with an IQ in excess of 200. She's the one who came up with this. Experiments in labs and mathematical models all show that this is correct."

I think that Marilyn vos Savant's high IQ proves that IQ score is not a measure of intelligence. It is an interesting puzzle (that almost everyone gets wrong) though. I think there's already a guide entry on it somewhere (search for Monty Hall problem).

Actually, that part about God and not allowing him timetravel is bung... If he were to travel through time and determine the outcome (decay or no decay) the field of uncertainty is collapsed. Although no person in our timeline knows the outcome, 'someone' in another does.
It's nice to put in a few light remarks, otherwise the article gets too stuffy, but this one especially contradicts the point you are trying to make.

Good article though!