The magic of Physics! < Quantum mechanix: the double slit experiment>

[stuntmovie]

Web, I never heard of QM, String Theory, Parallel Universes, or Einstein's theories in college. I merely accepted a challenge to read a basic book on QM, etc. and got hooked.

As I stated earlier, I had to read that book at least seven times to understand a little bit about QM but I do enjoy trying to think about how it all works when I got nothing else to think about.

No college required. You just need a genuine interest on how 'stuff' really works and then proceed to get 'blown away' when the smart guys try to explain to some of us dumb guys what they think is really happening every day all around us from your inner toe to the far ends of the universe.

Right now they are saying that everything is 'connected'.

Or something like that.

[James Blunt]

if this isn't about muscle men in thongs, then i don't know shit....

Ain't that the truth

[Parker]

Web, I never heard of QM, String Theory, Parallel Universes, or Einstein's theories in college. I merely accepted a challenge to read a basic book on QM, etc. and got hooked.

As I stated earlier, I had to read that book at least seven times to understand a little bit about QM but I do enjoy trying to think about how it all works when I got nothing else to think about.

No college required. You just need a genuine interest on how 'stuff' really works and then proceed to get 'blown away' when the smart guys try to explain to some of us dumb guys what they think is really happening every day all around us from your inner toe to the far ends of the universe.

Right now they are saying that everything is 'connected'.Or something like that.

Hell, I could have tou that...basically they broke everything down, and found out that our world is one big puzzle, and each piece is connected to the other. The problem is, there are sooooo many pieces, and the puzzle keeps getting bigger and bigger.

[muscularny]

But didnt a human eye watch it before they places the camera?

[ToxicAvenger]

i would say if you travelled alongside a light beam at the same speed you would not see it. fighter pilots do not hear the sonic booms they create, do they?  wouldnt' that be the same concept?

the famous mitchelson morley experiment proved otherwise
http://www.desy.de/user/projects/Physics/Relativity/SpeedOfLight/speed_of_light.html
Special Relativity

Another assumption on the laws of physics made by the SI definition of the metre is that the theory of relativity is correct.  It is a basic postulate of the theory of relativity that the speed of light is constant.  This can be broken down into two parts:

The speed of light is independent of the motion of the observer.
The speed of light does not vary with time or place.
To state that the speed of light is independent of the velocity of the observer is very counterintuitive.  Some people even refuse to accept this as a logically consistent possibility, but in 1905 Einstein was able to show that it is perfectly consistent if you are prepared to give up assumptions about the absolute nature of space and time.

In 1879 it was thought that light must propagate through a medium in space just as sound propagates through the air and other substances.  The two scientists Michelson and Morley set up an experiment to attempt to detect the ether, by observing relative changes in the speed of light as the Earth changed its direction of travel relative to the sun during the year.  To their surprise, they failed to detect any change in the speed of light.

Fitzgerald then suggested that this might be because the experimental apparatus contracted as it passed through the ether, in such a way as to countermand the attempt to detect the change in velocity.  Lorentz extended this idea to changes in the rates of clocks to ensure complete undetectability of the ether.  Einstein then argued that those transformations should be understood as changes of space and time rather than of physical objects, and that the absoluteness of space and time introduced by Newton should be discarded.  Just after that, the mathematician Minkowski showed that Einstein's theory of relativity could be understood in terms of a four dimensional non-euclidean geometry that considered space and time as one entity, ever after called spacetime.

The theory is not only mathematically consistent, it is in agreement with countless direct experiments.  The Michelson-Morley experiment was repeated with greater accuracy in the years that followed.  In 1925 Dayton Miller announced that he had detected a change in velocity of the speed of light and was even awarded prizes for the discovery, but a 1950s appraisal of his work indicated that the most likely origin of his results lay with diurnal and seasonal variations in the temperature of his equipment.

Modern instruments could easily detect any ether drift if it existed.  The Earth moves around the sun at a speed of about 30 km/s, so if velocities added vectorially as newtonian mechanics requires, the last 5 digits in the value of the speed of light now used in the SI definition of the metre would be meaningless.  Today, high energy physicists at CERN in Geneva and Fermilab in Chicago routinely accelerate particles to within a whisper of the speed of light.  Any dependence of the speed of light on reference frames would have shown up long ago, unless it is very slight indeed.

[ToxicAvenger]

it should be sorta understandable to the nerds here that actually brought copies of " a brief history of time" and actually read it in high school....n then instead of being the nerds that discussed monthy python around the nerd group....discussed this crap

[stuntmovie]

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/archivos_pdf/dancing_wulimasters.pdf

The above link will take you to a on-line PDF copy of "Dancing Wu Li Masters" which I believe helps to teach the basics of QM as simply as possible. You can actually start on page 25 as numbered on the bottom of each page.

I suggest reading one chapter at a time and re-read that chapter if necessary until it is understood. Then proceed to the next chapter.

It gets complicated rather swiftly but is worth reading. I recall that it also gets in the subject of Parallel worlds which will really warp your brain,

[Tapeworm]

it should be sorta understandable to the nerds here that actually brought copies of " a brief history of time" and actually read it in high school....n then instead of being the nerds that discussed monthy python around the nerd group....discussed this crap

Just remember when you're feeling very small and insecure
How amazingly unlikely was your birth!
And let's pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space
Because there's bugger all down here on the Earth.

[FREAKgeek]

Stephen Hawking and his cronies all sit around a round table and make this stuff up.

[Hulkster]

anyone read Brian Greene's "The Elegant Universe"?

I read it in university. its very good. great into to string theory.

[FREAKgeek]

 Stephen Hawking bet Kip Thorne that the X-ray source Cygnus X-1 does not harbour a black hole. If it's not true he has to give Kip a 4 year subscription to Penthouse magazine.

I believe Hawking loves the fine boobie shots.

[Tapeworm]

Stephen Hawking bet Kip Thorne that the X-ray source Cygnus X-1 does not harbour a black hole. If it's not true he has to give Kip a 4 year subscription to Penthouse magazine.

I believe Hawking loves the fine boobie shots.

We all owe a debt of gratitude to pussy magnet Richard Feynman, originator of the smedium tshirt attraction theory.

[YngiweRhoads]

We all owe a debt of gratitude to pussy magnet Richard Feynman, originator of the smedium tshirt attraction theory.

[Tapeworm]

Genius but what a twitchy geek he was.

[Howard]

once upon a time i wanted to be a physics major.....i took a buncha classes as electives but my parents forced me into biology 

I actually teach physics for a living and I enjoyed it.

[ToxicAvenger]

anyone read Brian Greene's "The Elegant Universe"?

I read it in university. its very good. great into to string theory.

its on youtube....the whole thing! 

didn 't read it...but watched it

[ToxicAvenger]

I actually teach physics for a living and I enjoyed it.

i ws wondering when you were gonna show up in this thread...and thats ALL you have to say? 

[Howard]

i ws wondering when you were gonna show up in this thread...and thats ALL you have to say? 

It is get big not an AAPT conference c'mon hehehe

[ToxicAvenger]

It is get big not an AAPT conference c'mon hehehe

fine...it IS getbig....

i once told this chick who ws a physics major that i'd show her my normal vector if she'd play with it! 

[cauthon]

watch the damn video.....its actually pretty cool....

and if i wanted to look smart i woulda posted about something i know a lot more about

Or done something like this:

[Immortal_Technique]

Two slits interfering with each other.

http://youporn.com/watch/284974/audrey-jenaveve-extra-credit-classroom-fuck/?from=search_full&pos=4

[BIG ACH]

In undergrad, I majored in Systems Engineering.  Had to take Calc 1, 2, and 3, and Physics 1 and 2, and of course a million engineering courses....


Whats funny is when I was in Physics, it was during the time the US went to war in Afganistan right after September 11th, so our exam questions in class looked something like this:

" Part 1)  A US Fighter jet is trying to drop a missile at a terrorist compound at coordinates of blah blah X blah blah, while avoiding the civilians neighborhoods at coordinates blah blah X blah blah...  If the jet is flying at an altitutde of blah blah, at a speed of blah blah, what is the projecticle angle that should be used, in order to terminate the terrorists while avoiding the civilians?
Part 2)  After destroying the terrorist compound, the fighter jet would like to drop food to the Afganistan civilians, what speed should the jet accelerate at in order to drop the food at coordnates of blah blah X blah blah?

I shit you not!!! I busted out laughing when I saw these questions, there were many more like that!

[ToxicAvenger]

In undergrad, I majored in Systems Engineering.  Had to take Calc 1, 2, and 3, and Physics 1 and 2, and of course a million engineering courses....


Whats funny is when I was in Physics, it was during the time the US went to war in Afganistan right after September 11th, so our exam questions in class looked something like this:

" Part 1)  A US Fighter jet is trying to drop a missile at a terrorist compound at coordinates of blah blah X blah blah, while avoiding the civilians neighborhoods at coordinates blah blah X blah blah...  If the jet is flying at an altitutde of blah blah, at a speed of blah blah, what is the projecticle angle that should be used, in order to terminate the terrorists while avoiding the civilians?
Part 2)  After destroying the terrorist compound, the fighter jet would like to drop food to the Afganistan civilians, what speed should the jet accelerate at in order to drop the food at coordnates of blah blah X blah blah?

I shit you not!!! I busted out laughing when I saw these questions, there were many more like that!

i ws forced into biology by my folks but i managed to take calc 1,2,3 and physics 1 and 2 and a few astronomy courses as electives...till my parents caught on what i ws doing...other than anatomy and physiology 1 and 2 and biomechanics i hated every organic chem, every micro biology...every physical chem blah blahh class i took..
eventually i told my parents it ws either my change to physics or quit school altogether and they wouldn't listen....so i simply quit going to classes and went ahead and let em pay for it...since they insisted....around that time i drank a lot and spent a lot of time in the gym...so i ws the heaviest i've ever been...210lbs at 5 10...
2 semesters later Univ of Maryland kicked me out for flunking all my classes  

[BIG ACH]

i ws forced into biology by my folks but i managed to take calc 1,2,3 and physics 1 and 2 and a few astronomy courses as electives...till my parents caught on what i ws doing...other than anatomy and physiology 1 and 2 and biomechanics i hated every organic chem, every micro biology...every physical chem blah blahh class i took..
eventually i told my parents it ws either my change to physics or quit school altogether and they wouldn't listen....so i simply quit going to classes and went ahead and let em pay for it...since they insisted....around that time i drank a lot and spent a lot of time in the gym...so i ws the heaviest i've ever been...210lbs at 5 10...
2 semesters later Univ of Maryland kicked me out for flunking all my classes  

I took both Bio and Chem - HATED BOTH OF THEM, Chem more so, oh my god I hate chem with a passion!!!!


I also took Human Sexuality in undergrad LOL..  We we were all assigned topics for presentations, and mine was on Wet Dreams, I asked the professor if I could spill a jug of water on my pants before I presented to add some humor and interest and she got really pissed off and said NO!  LOL  I ended up getting a B in that class... WTF, that really hit my ego, I GOT A B IN HUMAN SEXUALITY! LOL

[ToxicAvenger]

I took both Bio and Chem - HATED BOTH OF THEM, Chem more so, oh my god I hate chem with a passion!!

agreed....i think there is NO other boring subject than chem....ok maybe history...i hated chem with a passion..and the professors were so damn boring

I also took Human Sexuality in undergrad LOL..  We we were all assigned topics for presentations, and mine was on Wet Dreams, I asked the professor if I could spill a jug of water on my pants before I presented to add some humor and interest and she got really pissed off and said NO!  LOL  I ended up getting a B in that class... WTF, that really hit my ego, I GOT A B IN HUMAN SEXUALITY! LOL

in microbiology we had to do some kinda presentation on "mystery bacteria" that we had to identify and then we got to name(we basically got un marked petri dishes with the mystery organism) ....i named ours " streptococcus maximus"    the TA thought that ws pretty funny