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---------------------- 2228 - - Quantum Mechanics and the Theory of Relativity.
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- Quantum Mechanics is the most powerful theory in physics. But, after 100 years of thinking and studying we are as confused as ever. Quantum Mechanics has weird theories that get confirmed with experiments results and to phenomenal accuracies, out to a dozen decimal places.
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- Quantum Mechanics explains why the sky is blue. (Request that Review). It explains how stars generate light. Great discoveries using Quantum Mechanics have been the foundation for the world’s electronics industry.
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. Despite this practical significance, we can not explain how it works in objective terms. Physicists struggle to explain results in objective “reality“. The Theory of Relativity offers mysteries at the other extremes of “reality“.
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- Relativity conjecture was that as an object (mass) moves at speeds approaching the speed of light its mass becomes infinite and it is impossible to go any faster. This conjecture became a theory in 1905 when it was published by Albert Einstein.
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- He added the effects of acceleration to his theory in 1915 including the equation stating that mass and energy were the same thing with the mass containing “c^2” more energy. (c^2 is 9*10^16 kilometers *meters^2 / seconds*2)
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- In 1686 Isaac Newton started his own mass-energy theory with 3 conjectures:
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- (1) An object in motion stays in motion unless acted on by an external force.
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- (2) For a constant mass force equals mass times acceleration, F = m*a.
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- (3) For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
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- In 1865 James Maxwell proposed the theory that light was a wave of electric and magnetic energy. The light wave was traveling at 186,000 miles per second.
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- In 1985 experiments found that light traveled at this same speed regardless of the speed or direction of the Earth’s orbit. Einstein had concluded that time flows differently according to our state of motion in order to keep the speed of light always a constant. Therefore, time and distance (length) had to be relative in order to keep their ratio a constant.
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---------------------------------- speed = distance / time
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- Einstein had also proposed that mass and energy were interchangeable according to:
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------------------------------- Energy = mass * c^2
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- This equation further allowed Einstein to conclude that mass increases with speed up to the speed of light. Light photons can travel at this speed because they have zero mass.
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- How do we reconcile this theory of Relativity applied to large objects with the theory of Quantum Mechanics that applies to small objects??
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- Greater energy is equivalent to even greater mass. Once it is great enough the mass-energy folds back on itself and becomes a Blackhole.
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- One theory uses equations to explain how a Blackhole brings the two theories together, called a “wave function”. The functions collapse to “reality” only when observed in experimental results. Otherwise there exists infinite parallel realities that are not observed and we just happen to live in one that is observed.
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- There is one strange exception, called quantum entanglement. This theory uses quantum particles interacting with each other faster than the speed pf light. This entanglement allows the measurement of the property of one particle (clockwise spin) to instantly communicate with another particle (counter-clockwise spin) regardless of their distance of separation. Instantaneous communication faster than the speed of light causes both particle spins to reverse instantaneously.
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- Another strange conclusion for time not being constant means that time moves relative to the motion of the observer. Time moves more slowly when the observer is in motion, called “time dilation”. Here is a consequence of this result:
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- A 15 year old astronaut travels for 5 years at 99.5% the speed of light. When he gets back to Earth he is 20 years old. However, those people left behind on Earth have aged to 65 years old.
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- Time Dilation sounds impossible but it is proven in our own GPS system. The atomic clocks in the Global Positioning Satellites tick slower due to their speed and elevation(gravity) EXACATLY according to Einstein’s math. After the several math corrections the GPS satellites tick 3 microseconds faster than the ground-based atomic clocks, just to keep the distance calculations accurate enough.
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- In the 1920’s theories surfaced stating that “reality” does not exist independent of measurement , or observation. Particles do not have definite positions. They exit at many places at once. Particles only exist at the point of being measured.
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- Albert Einstein did not agree with this Neils Bohr theory. He said “ Do you really believe the Moon is not there until you are looking at it?”
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- This theory uncovered even more mysteries when light photons are projected through narrow slots on to a screen. The light photons behave sometimes as particles and sometimes as waves, depending on how you set up the experiment.
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- One interpretation from these observations is that the wave function does not represent physical reality. It is only a mathematical way to represent probabilities for experimental outcomes. According to Quantum Mechanics a radioactive particle can exist as a wave function in “all possible states”. A single state crystallizes only at the point of measurement.
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- This wave-particle duality was first proposed in 1927 by Luis de Broglie. He developed the “pilot wave theory” that the wave exists in multiple dimensions.
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- Over the 13.8 billion years the Big Bang has expanded and cooled the Universe to a perfectly uniform 2.725 degrees above Absolute Zero. However, in 2015 small variations were found in this thought- to- be- uniform background radiation. The theory is that these small variations started as wave-particle fluctuations still imprinted in today’s Cosmic Microwave Background. It is the fingerprint of the Big Bang.
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- Somehow from these small variations from perfect uniformity the Universe created the stars and planets, and us. Amazing!
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- (More reviews on this subject are available if you are interested)
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- January 6, 2019 2015
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-------------------------- Sunday, January 6, 2019 --------------------------
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