Reality check

• Autores: Michael Brooks
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 2928, 2013, págs. 32-36
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Brooks discusses people's understanding of the quantum universe. For a start, quantum reality is unpleasantly random. Take the atoms of something as apparently real as humans. According to quantum theory, when in isolation they are never definitely in any one place. There is only ever a certain probability of finding an atom at point X, a different probability of finding it at Y, and yet another of finding it at Z. As long as one doesn't ask where it is, an atom exists in a "superposition" of all the possible places it might be. Ask the question--make a measurement--and the atom will reveal itself to be somewhere, but one won't necessarily be able to predict where. That weirdness reaches its apogee at the half-silvered mirror.