H/T Alexandra Albani In the 20th century, two revolutions in physics shook the world. One of them was relativity, discovered by Einstein. It revealed that spacetime is not what we experience in everyday life. For example, if you travel close to the speed of light, then you will age more slowly than somebody who stays on Earth. The second revolution was quantum theory, the microscopic theory of particles, such as electrons, atoms, or photons. Quantum theory showed that nature is not deterministic. After a century of careful testing, most physicists believe that the chanciness or capriciousness of the microscopic world is fundamental. One of the most exotic aspects of nature is quantum non-locality which was first discovered more than four decades ago. It is referred to as the most profound discovery of science. There are different types of non-locality which quantum mechanics showed could not exist in classical physics. In classical physics for a particle to experience a force, it must be at the same location where the force is. In quantum mechanics you can have a force in one place while the particle moves outside. Nevertheless, the particle will still feel this force. This is called the Aharonov-Bohm effect.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 09:44:09 +0000
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