Quantum Theory and probability

[Moonshed]

Back in 2003 (when my brain was still more or less working) I decided to create my own website that would cover a number of topics about cosmology and physics that I found interesting but complicated, and I wanted to do my best to explain them in a simple way that the majority of people would hopefully be able to understand. The one I found hardest to explain was, unsurprisingly, Quantum Theory, so I spent a lot of time and many drafts on this topic before I was happy with it. Anyway, that was a long time ago and I haven’t updated the site since 2004.

Move on 20 years to today. I just happened to be mulling over in my mind this afternoon some of the weirdness of Quantum Theory and decided to look up the Double Slit  experiment. I used a search engine and ended up here https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/double-slit-experiment 

It was only a short article but gave links to two other sites for further information. One was Wikipidea and the other was the “Theories with Problems” website………which is mine!

What are the chances?

[Macavity]

21 hours ago, Moonshed said:

Move on 20 years to today. I just happened to be mulling over in my mind this afternoon some of the weirdness of Quantum Theory and decided to look up the Double Slit  experiment. I used a search engine and ended up here https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/double-slit-experiment

Well Done! I printed it out, and will read it (with genuine enthusiasm!) later. 😎

Following my recent (perhaps slightly negative? lol) thoughts re. internet opinion, I was
moved to find/read about a pivotal facet of Quantum Mechanics internet "discussion":
That the topic is still *evolving* - At least re. how the basic idea is interpreted? A whole
raft of new terminology has entered the realm of "popular" Youtube Videos? 😏

When taught my "1973 version" of Quantum Mechanics, a Perfectly usable Text Book
was published in 1961. Even my "Advanced Quantum Mechanics" dated from 1972. lol
In the former e.g. the "Copenhagen Interpretation" is referenced (by name) but briefly! 😉

Not a complete excuse (lol), but it is interesting to check out the Definitions of Terms...
(epistemology? ontology?) and also note some of the DATES in the following?!?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpretations_of_quantum_mechanics 
If you don't understand everything, you are not alone? 😅

 

Edited March 7, 2023 by Macavity

[Moonshed]

3 hours ago, Macavity said:

Not a complete excuse (lol), but it is interesting to check out the Definitions of Terms...
(epistemology? ontology?) and also note some of the DATES in the following?!?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpretations_of_quantum_mechanics 
If you don't understand everything, you are not alone? 😅

That is one of those sites that is interesting and has many other interesting sites that it gives links to. I find that sometimes this can be akin to crossing the event horizon of a black hole and spinning down into oblivion. 😃

I’m glad you have decided to give my Quantum Theory explanation a read, I hope you find it interesting. I am going to blow my own trumpet now (after all no one else will 😂) and tell you about when I first put it on my website. After around 6 months or so I received an email from an American university, forget which, asking if it was okay to direct their undergraduates to  my site, and print if off, as they considered it was one of the two best introductions to QM they had found on the Internet. (I checked out the other one, it was rubbish 😉). This was followed a month later by another American university asking the same thing.

It’s a funny old world.

Edited March 7, 2023 by Moonshed
Typo

[Kev M]

Had a little browse....very impressed with the website....lots of knowledge    😀

[Moonshed]

9 hours ago, Kev M said:

Had a little browse....very impressed with the website....lots of knowledge    😀

Thank you, appreciate the comment.