OBSERVER PROBLEM
IS THE MOON THERE WHEN WE ARE NOT
LOOKING?
BY
MOHSEN KERMANSHAHI
WHAT IS REALITY
• Do you believe that there is an definite and concrete physical
world out there?
• Is reality multi-factual?
• Is reality on the eye of the beholder?
• Do we have anything to do with shaping the physical world?
NEWTONIAN PHYSICS
• It implies that there is a concrete reality out there.
• Newtonian physics suggests a clock work reality.
• If we now all of the factors involved, in principle, we can
predict and determine the outcome for sure.
CONTINUED……
• Unfortunately it is not humanly possible to know all the elements
involved.
• Who is La place’s Demon?
• Newtonian physics suggest separability
• It conforms with our intuition that physical world is in a definite
state
PROBLEMS
• Are we robots, run by absolute laws of nature?
• Are we governed by neuro-chemistry of our brain which in turn is governed by more
reduced laws of nature.
• Do we have free will?
• Are we responsible for our actions?
Good news for criminals. Unfortunately, the court of justice does not accept it, neither
do you and me.
• Does lack of free will conform to our intuition?
THE RELATIVITY THEORY
SHAKING THE PILLARS OF CONCRETE REALITY
• Is space absolute?
• Moving objects relative to us shrink
• Is there a universal clock?
• Moving clocks run slow relative to us (observer)
• Does mass have a definite value ?
• Observer‘s frame is the reference point
QUANTUM MECHANICS
• Does QM only governs at microscopic scale?
• Any scientific discipline meets QM at its base.
• In 2011 the researchers put large organic molecules as big as
the fattest Schrodinger's cat to date )in interference pattern
• QM effects in biology such as photosynthesis is well established
430 atoms (
QUANTUM ALL THE WAY?
• Experiments with bigger and bigger even visible objects are
showing QM properties
• in 1997 MIT researchers created a clump of millions sodium atoms
where cooled and showed that single clump were in two places at
once. Then they created interference pattern with it!!
• Where is a cut off? Is there any ?
PROBLEMS WITH DOUBLE SLIT EXPERIMENT
• 1/wave/particle duality
• 2/ being at two places at the same time
• 3/ observer gaining knowledge reduces the function to a classical
image (a band)
• 4/Thereafter everybody else will see a band, not interference
PARTICLE-WAVE FUNCTION
• What is a particle?
• What is a wave?
• When we talk about wave-particle, does we really mean
a wave?