Reality

A Quantum Mechanical Explanation for the Common Man

By Ryan Kolp

Introduction
Some of you may hear the words quantum physics or quantum
mechanics and label the terms as theoretical departments. Some of the ideas are
interesting, but they mean nothing in practicality. Others of you may not know
anything about quantum mechanics or its implications at all. But Im willing to bet
that every one of you has at one point or another taken a step back and thought for
a moment about the big picture: the universe. Its hard to really reflect on with all
the demands of daily life, but the time is coming near when daily life will have to
take a back seat for the big picture.
I realize that with the abundance of world religions and beliefs, there are
perhaps thousands of different interpretations for how the universe came to be, the
nature of reality, and what happens after death. This article is not intended to prove
or disprove any aspects of various religions, and only similarities will be
mentioned.
In this article, I will discuss such things as the current scientific worldview,
the general beginning and ideas of quantum theory, the infamous double-slit
experiment, quantum entanglement or nonlocality, Heisenbergs uncertainty
principle, particle-wave duality, space and time aberration, the law of conservation
of energy, the idea of nothingness, and the implications following from these
topics. I encourage you to read with an open mind, you will need it.

The Current Scientific Worldview
If youve gone through middle school and high school, you can attest to
learning at least a few things about The Big Bang. This is the cosmic event that
blasted the universe into existence around 14 billion years ago. All the matter and
energy contained in the universe was at one point condensed into a single
miniscule space before rapidly expanding into the void. After cooling down some,
fundamental particles like protons and neutrons formed and then over some
thousands of years, the lightest elements Hydrogen, Helium, and some Lithium
formed. Over even more thousands upon thousands of years, these elements
coalesced into nebulae and then stars due to the effects of gravity. When the stars
got old and died, they released heavier elements like Carbon and eventually, the
universe was littered with all of these different types of atoms. Then gravity did its
thing and made planets and moons and asteroids out of them. Life accidentally
came around when a couple of inorganic molecules got together and were
subjected to some energy and then evolution began. The first single-celled
organisms started multiplying in the oceans and becoming more and more
complex. Eventually they became fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, birds, and
insects. Mankind as it exists today reared its head only 200,000 years ago. Aside
from how things came to be, we have discovered some fundamental laws that
things in nature seem to follow like gravity, time, space, and objectivity.
Thats how things are explained in classrooms, and thats what the majority
of the scientific world currently believes. Is it all true? Well, evidence supporting it
all is staggering and can be found almost anywhere. But keep in mind the fact that
just a few hundred years ago people thought the Earth was flat. People thought the
Earth was the center of the universe. People used to think that lightning was caused
by Zeus throwing down his bolts on the disappointing mortals. Whats to say that
were not wrong now? Living our lives as we do, we would never question what
we see and experience. Everything in the universe, from pebbles to planets, seems
to follow a precise set of laws. But, in truth, not everything does.

Quantum Mechanics: The Science of the Small
Quantum mechanics began in 1918, after German physicist, Max Planck,
discovered that changes in particle energy could only occur in fixed amounts
(quanta). For example, a Hydrogen atom heated up to 400 degrees might give off 2
units of energy. Then at a higher temperature it might give off 4 units, and then 6,
and 8, and so on in increments of 2. The idea that molecular phenomena were
quantized sparked an entire field of research that grew to encompass everything
from light to the water in your tub. During much of the early to mid-1900s,
quantum mechanics champions included Max Planck, Niels Bohr, Erwin
Schrdinger, Werner Heisenberg, and Max Born to name a few. Interestingly, one
of its staunchest opponents was Albert Einstein. In a famous discussion with Niels
Bohr regarding an aspect of quantum mechanics, he said, I like to think that the
moon is still there even when I am not looking at it.
Now then, clearly theres something odd about quantum mechanics because
if there wasnt, it wouldnt be its own branch of science. Well, as I hinted at earlier,
some things dont follow the same rules as everything else. Things on the quantum
scale like protons, neutrons, electrons, quarks, and atoms behave quite differently
than larger scale matter. A few quirks about their behavior include being able to be
in more than one spot at a time, vanishing out of existence and then reappearing
back into it, and being spread out over a much larger area than their own size. As
weird as that sounds now, thats the least crazy thing youll discover about
quantum mechanics. The following topic will introduce you to one of the most
controversial experiments of all time.

The Double-Slit Experiment
The double-slit experiment is a simple one in set-up. A light source is
placed in front of some type of plate with two vertical slits at the center of it. A
catch sheet is placed behind the plate to mark where something has hit it. So if you
turn on the light source, photons from the beam pass through the two slits and
make a random scattering on the catch sheet where the photons landed. Nothing
special there. But something interesting happens when the experiment is isolated
and no one is watching. When the photons are not observed, a different pattern
shows up on the catch sheet. Instead of a random scattering as would be expected,
several vertical patches appear depending on the size of the catch sheet. This
pattern is the result of wave interference. Waves? But the photons acted as particles
before! It would seem that matter behaves as both waves and particles. Which one
depends on whether or not it is being observed. This implies that the very act of
observing the photon influences its behavior, as if it knew it was being watched.
Too crazy to believe? How about a different variation of the experiment? This one
is called an interferometer experiment, but tests the same thing. A particle, such as
a photon, is sent through a beam-splitter which, as the name suggests, splits the
beam and creates two possible paths for the photon to take. One path is reflected at
a 90 degree angle and then hits a mirror and reflects to a detector. The other path
goes straight through the beam-splitter, hits a mirror, reflects to another mirror and
then hits the same detector as the first path. Each photon can take either path. Here
is a basic illustration to help you visualize.


Imagine that there are two boxes in front of the detector, one that
corresponds to each possible beam path. There are two experiments you can do:
you can open one box at a time to prove that the photon was in one box or the
other, or you can open both boxes at the same time to prove that the photon was
simultaneously in both boxes. Incredibly, whichever experiment you choose to do,
you will always be correct. If you open one box at a time, you will consistently
find that the photon was in one both and not the other. If you open both boxes at
the same time, a single photon will appear on the detector, but if you repeat this,
you will end up with an interference pattern. This pattern would only be possible if
the photon were in both boxes at the same time. No matter what experiment you
choose to do, and no matter how many times you do the experiment, you will
always see the appropriate result. The only thing that changes is what you decide to
look for. Could it just be chance? No way. The only feasible statistic of a particle
randomly behaving in an appropriate way to one of the experiments is 52% of the
time. These results happen 100% of the time. The experiments have been done
thousands of times in hundreds of different variations all in attempts to disprove
the findings, but none have been successful. The results are legitimate. So what do
they mean? Well, they mean that your decision to open either one box at a time or
both boxes influenced the photonin the past. Stay with me now. Each particle
before being observed exists as what is called a wave function. The wave function
represents the probability of finding the particle in a particular spot. So before you
open one or both boxes, the wave function of the photon is in both boxes. The
photon is in both boxes and neither box at the same time. When you choose to
open one box, the wave function collapses into a single box, and you will either
find the photon in the box you opened, or you wont, meaning it is in the other box.
If you open both boxes at the same time, the wave function of the photon interferes
with itself when being released and begins the interference pattern. But naturally,
when the photon is released from the machine into the set-up, it doesnt actually
split in two. Depending on whatever experiment you do in the future, the photon
will behave in a way that corresponds to it. Future events influence past events. By
deciding which experiment to do, you CREATE the history necessary to achieve
the appropriate result. Thats a lot to handle, so lets take a little brain break and
move on to a somewhat-easier-to-grasp topic.

Here is a link to a helpful video:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/e4/Wave-
particle_duality.ogv/Wave-particle_duality.ogv.480p.webm

Quantum Entanglement or Nonlocality
Many of you are well aware that the speed limit of the universe is that of
light. Nothing that we can measure can move faster than 300,000,000 meters per
second. Theoretically, anything that could move faster than light would be able to
travel through time and space instantaneously. By almost all accounts, that is
impossible. But the one account where this mysteriously does not hold true is that
of quantum entanglement or nonlocality. When two particles are near each other
and interact in a special way, they become entangled. They are forever linked
together and will influence each other for the rest of eternity. Their bond is so
powerful that not even infinite distance can keep them from communicating. Let's
say you take one entangled particle and then send its partner across the galaxy. If
you measure the spin of your particle and it happens to be up, its partner will
instantly take on the opposite quality and have a down spin. If you measure the
polarity of yours, the partner's polarity will be the opposite. It's as if the two are
communicating with each other from across the galaxy. The big problem with that,
aside from how they can maintain any sort of connection across such a distance, is
how any signal between them can travel fast enough to instantly influence each
other. In order for a signal to cross a galaxy with zero travel time, the signal would
have to travel faster than the speed of light. Albert Einstein termed this
phenomenon, spooky action at a distance. Experiments have been done countless
times to confirm this process. A remarkable aspect of this phenomenon is that
entanglement can be manipulated to actually teleport other particles. Within the
last 5 years, a scientist has done experiments where he has successfully teleported
particles across a distance of around 80 miles. By attaching another particle to one
of the entangled particles, he can send it across the ocean at the flip of a switch or
the stroke of a key. So how in the world can such a thing happen? How can
anything violate the universal speed limit? No answer to that has been found yet,
though several theories have been proposed. Some scientists even postulate that if
all matter was hyper-condensed in the Big Bang, everything in the universe might
be entagled. Regardless of the mystery behind why it happens, it is certain that
entanglement is not a miscalculation. It is a reality that could help alter the way we
see everything.

Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle
One of the most influential physicists of all time, Werner Heisenberg, came
up with a very astute observation regarding particles and matter in general. He said
that the more precisely you measure a particle's position, the less precisely you can
measure its momentum and vice versa. This idea has sometimes been confused as
pertaining to the difficulty in accurately measuring two things as part of human
error, often called the observer effect, but the uncertainty principle is a fundamental
aspect of quantum objects. Barring human, mechanical, or any other error, position
and momentum of a quantum object cannot be accurately measured
simultaneously. This means that there is something that does not physically allow
particles' positions and momenta to be accurately measured. This is attributed to
the dual wave/particle nature of matter, which we will touch on next.

Particle/Wave Duality
So, as we've discussed, the double-slit experiment and experiments proving
the uncertainty principle to hold true have demonstrated the particle/wave duality
of matter. All matter seems to exist both in a particle state and a wave state
simultaneously. Everything that you can see and feel exists as you see it, within the
confines of its own dimensions, but also as a wave spread out over a large area.
The wave form of matter, its wavefunction, represents the probability of a particle
being found in a given spot when observed. This is to say that matter, when not
observed, exists merely as waves of probability. Now, that doesn't mean that when
you're not looking at your car it vanishes until you look at it again. Matter takes on
a particle form whenever its wavefunction collapses. Wavefunctions are extremely
sensitive, so the slightest amount of interference like noise, heat, light, and even
knowledge (observation), can cause a probability wave to collapse into a definite
location and form. This is why it's nearly impossible to demonstrate quantum
phenomena with macroscopic objects. It's so hard to isolate them from
interference. Particles are significantly easier to isolate because of their size. It's
impossible to see or detect that something is currently behaving as a probability
wave because simply observing something causes it to take on a particle form.
Experiments tell us that this dual nature of matter is a fundamental aspect of the
universe, and not attributed to observer error. Once again, things are proven to not
be what they seem.


Abberation:
Debunking Space and Time
One of the most profound theories brought about by the results of quantum
experiments and Einstein's findings on travel at incredibly high speeds proposes
that space and time are not real. They are tools made by the mind to deal with
reality. So how does any of this make sense? Well first we'll talk about why it
makes sense and then we'll discuss some of the evidence supporting it.
Let's start with space: the plane of existence that we all occupy. We move
through it, build things in it, and explore it. But what is it? Well it's supposed to be
a fixed dimension that everything in the universe occupies and expands into.
Regardless of what you do, the distances between two fixed points in space will
always remain the same. Taking universal expansion (another mystery) out of the
equation, the distance between the Earth and the Moon will always be around
239,000 miles. Keep that in mind. Now, as I said before, we define space as the
dimensions that we move through, which we describe as being empty, but that's
probably not true, as we will see in an upcoming section on nothingness. Consider
a stack of dishes. We describe the scene as several dishes because we have labels
for the constituents of the scene. We call each piece of the scene a dish, and since
there are several of them, well just call them dishes. Now, consider a scene looking
out into a forest. There might be birds, trees, grass, a stream, deer, some leaves
falling, clouds, etc. We have labels for all of these things, but not for the stuff in
between. We just call it space. Instead of seeing the scene as one, we break it apart
into different pieces so that we can process it easier. It's well known that that's how
our brains work. For communication's sake, we are pretty much forced to break
things apart and label them. The things we don't have labels for fall under
possession of the things we DO have labels for and everything else constitutes
space. There's space between yourself and the clock on your nightstand. There's
space between the trees and the birds.
Time is a little easier to explain and much easier to understand it not
existing. We measure time in seconds, minutes, hours, days, years, etc. But how do
we know how long each unit is? The actual source for the length of a second is
defined as the time it takes a Cesium atom to vibrate some 900 billion times when
exposed to a beam of light. We measure time by using somewhat predictable,
repetitive natural occurrences. Without imposing a system of counting the
frequency of events happening, we wouldn't have time. One might argue that time
has to be real because organisms grow, age, and die, buildings weaken and
crumble, and the past and future exist. Consider that what we perceive as time is
really just motion and energy loss. When things age, it's due to cells slowing down,
weakening, and losing energy. Buildings crumble due to outside effects and
structural weakening. The past and the future, in truth, may not exist at all. Time
seems to be simply conceptual. Now let's explain the evidence in support of a
reality with space and time.
First off, to cover space, we'll talk about an effect called aberration. You
have probably experienced this effect when driving in the snow. While the snow is
falling, there is a lot of it coming straight at the windshield, but there is nothing
hitting the back window or the side windows. This happens on a much larger scale
when moving at high speeds. Suppose you are in a rocket ship heading towards the
center of the galaxy. You look outside and see the Earth is behind you, there are
stars to your sides, the Sun off in the distance, and planets faintly among the
blackness. If you start to speed up, you'll notice that things get a little blurrier, but
you can still make them out. Get close to light speed and things get weird. You will
notice that everything you once saw around you is starting to shrink and seems to
be closer to you than it should be. If you get to 99% light speed, the entire universe
will end up right in front of you as a blinding point of light that is probably only a
light-year or so away instead of a couple kiloparsecs (1 kiloparsec = 3,262 light
years). Hit 100% light speed and you appear to be everywhere in the universe at
one time. Space distorts relative to your speed and is thus not constant, not
fundamental. Another piece of evidence in support of a universe without space is
quantum entanglement. As you learned, entangled particles influence each other
using signals that would have to travel faster than the speed of light. Measure one
particle here, and its partner across the galaxy can be instantaneously measured
with an opposite value. This would suggest that there is in fact no space between
them at all. The only other explanation for entanglement involves bringing in 11
dimensions and some parallel universes, which is much more ridiculous than
getting rid of space.
Now, let's cover time. The most striking evidence for the nonreality of time
is the implications behind the results of the box pair version of the double slit
experiment. We saw that when you chose which experiment to perform, whether to
open one box at a time or both at once, the wavefunction of the photon collapsed or
interfered with itself in response to what you did. Before you chose what to do, the
wavefunction of the photon existed in both boxes at the same time and neither.
When you chose to perform one of the experiments, you created the history
necessary to produce the proper outcome. If you opened one box at a time, the
photon's history was created to have it go through one path or the other. If you
opened both boxes at the same time, the photon traveled through both paths as a
wave at the same time. What you do in the present influences the past. Time would
seem to flow backwards. But that doesn't happen in classical physics. Time does
not appear to have a definite flow or even a constant one as proven by Einstein.
You've probably heard that crazy trivia fact that if you travel around in space for a
couple years at high speeds, time will pass faster for those on Earth. You might
have aged 5 years, and your friends and family would have aged 7 years. Einstein's
relativity equations have proved that. Time, like space, is not fundamental. It is not
constant, it changes depending on the observer. Time being representative of
motion, is logically altered in accordance with the increased speed of the observer.

The Law Of Conservation of Energy
We'll go back to a popular law of physics, the law of conservation of energy.
In it, no isolated system can put out an unlimited amount of energy. Without
external force, the energy of a system will remain the same. It never increases or
decreases. Energy can never be created nor destroyed. If this law truly applies
universally, then an interesting conclusion can be made regarding the nature of the
universe. If no energy could ever be created, the only explanation is that all the
energy that currently exists has existed infinitely. It never began and it will never
end. The was no beginning and there won't be an end. One of the handicaps of
understanding the universe is mankind's own habits in expecting things to have
started somehow. Everything that we know of was created somehow, like
buildings, animals, ourselves, planets, stars, etc. But you can keep going further
back and back in a chain of ancestry for infinity. There is no logical reason why
anything ever had to have a beginning. That idea is a man-made one, and one that
relies on the belief that the natural state of the universe is nothing. This leads us to
our next discussion.

Nothingness
It's a pretty commonplace term, nothing. We use it mostly in conversation
to describe a lack of something significant, such as when asked what we did today
and responding, Oh, nothing really. For its practical uses, nothing is fine. But
applying it to physics and reality is a different story. Nothingness is sometimes
used synonymously with the word space. It's empty, dark, and cold. There is
nothing to measure, nothing to see, nothing to experience, there's just a void.
Despite decades of research and efforts to find it, nothing does not exist, nor has
it ever. Much like the dispute over whether the natural order of things is chaos or
order, the dispute over whether the natural state of the universe is for there to be
something or nothing has been raging for centuries. Taking the previously
established claim that everything in the universe has always existed into
consideration, we are forced to assume that there was never a moment when there
was nothing. You are living in a reality that has always been. You are part of an
eternal system that will never end. Galaxies may collide, universes may implode,
but in a grander scheme, there will never be nothing. Contrary to popular belief,
empty space, or the vacuum, is actually one of the most powerful things in the
universe. Consider a steel drum with a pump sucking the air out of it. After all the
air is taken out, a vacuum is created in the drum. The drum is crushed by the force
of the vacuum. For being nothing, it certainly packs a punch. Physicists believe
this has something to do with dark matter and dark energy, together said to
comprise 94% of the universe. Both are still fairly unknown subjects. A common
practice in some religions is to empty your mind of all thought and simply think of
nothing. If you give it a try, you will find that it is very difficult, and probably even
impossible. How do you visualize nothing? Both in our minds and in the cosmos
around us, nothing is nowhere to be found.

Further Thought and Implications
The results of quantum experiments leave us with some pretty world-
changing implications. The double-slit experiment showed that matter is both
particle and wave, future events influence past events, and reality is observer
dependent. Quantum entanglement showed that space and time do not exist, and
even that all matter in the universe somehow influences all other matter in the
universe. The classical law of conservation of energy shows that the natural state of
the universe is for there to be something and that nothingness does not exist nor
has it ever. These revelations are going under the radar, but it won't be long before
there is a complete shift in the scientific worldview. Things are not what they seem,
and we must take that into account in the future. Knowing that these things are true
may not directly change your daily life in the slightest now, but do you think that
finding out that the world is round instead of flat made a huge change in many
peoples lives besides sailors? Yet, it's a no-brainer that such a discovery was
monumental in the advancement of science. The fruit that quantum research bears
is bringing us ever closer to things like teleportation, intergalactic travel, infinitely
fast computer processing, and truly unhackable systems. Already, technology that
accounts for 1/3 of the global economy is possible because of quantum mechanics.
The possibilities for the future seem endless.

Conclusion
I truly hope that you have been able to keep an open mind while reading this,
and I hope that you can use some of this insight to form your own opinions and ask
your own questions. There's more that we don't know than could ever be explained
in a thousand generations, but each day we get closer and closer to something big.

Feel free to ask me if you have questions, or do some research online. For further
reading, I would recommend Quantum Enigma by Bruce Rosenbulm and Fred
Kutter and Biocentrism by Robert Lanza.