I can’t be the only one who absolutely hates the idea of a particle having two states at once, right? Is it just a personal thing or is it tied somehow to the fact that autistic people generally have more binary thinking?

Forgive me if it’s a stupid question. I’m still trying to figure out how this all works and whether I’m autistic or not.

  • @SmoothOperator
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    51 year ago

    Schrödinger’s cat is indeed a terrible analogy, but so is the Christmas presents one. A cat is always either alive or dead, and the contents of a Christmas present are determined before opening it. But the state of a quantum particle is fundamentally ambiguous before measurement. This is demonstrated by experiments breaking the Bell inequality if you want to know more!

    • Affine Connection
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      1 year ago

      … the state of a quantum particle is fundamentally ambiguous before measurement. This is demonstrated by experiments breaking the Bell inequality …

      No, the state is not what’s ambiguous, but rather a single, definitive value of the variable is what does not exist unless it’s already in an eigenstate of said variable.

      Yes, I am aware of what you meant, but your wording may be misleading.