In regards to the quality of the video analogy, I've always found Dr. Quantum's physics videos extremely accessible and a model example of how to explain difficult science concepts.

http://www.videosift.com/video/Quantum-Physics-Double-Slit-Experiment-amazing-results
http://www.videosift.com/video/Dr-Quantum-Visits-a-2-Dimensional-World

I made a reply to your post. From the bottom of my heart, none of it was meant to be rude or challenging. The sentiments and suggestions made by this video is what inspires new younger generations of einsteins and newtons to never be happy with their perceptions of things, and to always challenge them and hope for more.

I've gotten into arguments on the sift before over less than this (with utter jerks), but i hope you see that it was all from a good place.

In reply to this comment by Ornthoron:
Bah, I hate this. This movie takes some common thought experiments and twists them around so as to justify some quack New Age nonsense. The talk of dimensions here has absolutely nothing to do with quantum mechanics. During the whole movie they give well-known physical concepts new meaning, so that they retroactively justify their unsound theories. Beneath this clip is the unspoken promise that you can be so much more than you are today, if you only buy into the crap of the movie producers and let them help you on the way in the same manner Dr. Quantum helped Ms. Flat there.

The other clip on here from the same movie is worth a watch, though. In spite of the movie's flaws, that clip actually gives a good explanation of the double slit experiment. But the conclusions they draw from it are horrendous.

Bah, I hate this. This movie takes some common thought experiments and twists them around so as to justify some quack New Age nonsense. The talk of dimensions here has absolutely nothing to do with quantum mechanics. During the whole movie they give well-known physical concepts new meaning, so that they retroactively justify their unsound theories. Beneath this clip is the unspoken promise that you can be so much more than you are today, if you only buy into the crap of the movie producers and let them help you on the way in the same manner Dr. Quantum helped Ms. Flat there.

The other clip on here from the same movie is worth a watch, though. In spite of the movie's flaws, that clip actually gives a good explanation of the double slit experiment. But the conclusions they draw from it are horrendous.

Umm.. ridiculously uninformative video.

Also, I've understood (through the double slit experiment and whatnot) that scientists can release just a single photon at a time. I would imagine it would be difficult to find a shorter burst of light than that.

>> ^DrPawn:
This video is a complete fraud.


You're absolutely right.

This film was a ruse. Nothing but a cheap tuxedo on their new-age junk-science.

dupe: http://www.videosift.com/video/Quantum-Physics-Double-Slit-Experiment-amazing-results

*discard

1. I never said Christians cannot/shouldn't be scientists and nor do I think so. I know several good scientists that are religious, and I respect them, even though they were indoctrinated as children and have since interpreted some of their experiences as proof of a deity. It is sad, and it all comes back to indoctrination, like I said previously. Now, supporters of ID, however, are a disgrace and they're undermining the whole concept of science. I think you'd agree that there is quite the correlation between religious fanatics and supporters of ID, wouldn't you? So it's no real surprise I assumed you might be one. I apologize for this assumption, and I'm happy you say you're not of the ID crowd.

2. I didn't attack your interests; just essentially said you should expand your knowledge in most fields - as should I and pretty much everyone. I just get annoyed when people talk about advanced sciences with great ignorance, misconstruing and making up facts on the spot, and that was what you did.

3. We are in agreement on science not making the claim of (ever) having the absolute truth; yet you seem to be one who believes this is possible via faith, that science has no truth to it at all and also, that making this claim is a good thing; this is where your logic and rationality fail. Anyone making the claim of absolute truth is wrong, and hence, it's a bad thing.

4. The mass of an atom isn't "the most simple thing in particle physics". It also isn't the smallest particle. Nor the one with least mass. It is also, in most common cases, a known, and I am at a loss how anyone could forgo this knowledge in their secondary education. Just because you lack basic knowledge in particle, no, basic, rudimentary physics, doesn't mean the scientific community does.

5. I won't argue semantics of 'fact' here. If you don't like the scientific definition, you can... well, do nothing about it. A discussion should be based on impartial principles, however, you attempt to impose your set of definitions and interpretations.

6. How is a METHOD true or false? Do you have any understanding of what a method is?

7. It appears your 'knowledge' of particle physics is drawn from http://www.videosift.com/video/Quantum-Physics-Double-Slit-Experiment-amazing-results. That's just sad, man. You should at least browse through Wikipedia before you engage in a discussion about these matters. We cannot as of yet see an electron or a photon - it has to be registered - interacted with, to determine which slit it goes through to carry this experiment out - hence the intrusion and the different results. The cool thing that baffles scientists is that it's the first time we've had a situation in which one cannot measure without interfering. That's it. That's the easy explanation. I don't think I should go into how the complementarity principle and wave-particle duality work.

8. In response to your request (you ignored mine) - here's 7 ideas from a 200 years ago that we hold true and still use today, quite in their original form, include:

Heliocentric theory.
Narrative history.
Electromagnetic induction.
Electrolysis.
Oxidation numbers.
Kinetic theory of gases.

and finally, a dessert - Evolution. It's occurrence has finally been proved in a lab experiment. Did you know that?

9. Please, don't just talk about it, do also look the Theory of Everything up. You actually think it's a theory that tries to describe everything - which is hilarious. I hate schooling other people and doing the internet's job, but you ought to know it is a theory that would explain the 4 known fundamental forces of our universe - gravity, electromagnetic force and strong and weak nuclear forces. That's it, doing that alone has proven to be difficult enough. There may be other forces required to explain any and all physical phenomena, which is what it's geared towards, but it won't in any way try to explain, for example, why kittens are cute or why you're arguing about that which you have little to none understanding of on the internet.

All in all, I apologize for my sometimes hostile tone; it's rather challenging for me to tolerate blatant ignorance. And you saying "It is impossible to prove something truth with science.", that's just plain wrong and illustrates just to what extent you misunderstand science and its methods.

Anyway, if you think it does not further true knowledge, then why the hell are you studying science, huh?

With reference to well known the double slit experiment, where an interference patrern is observed, I quote from the video: "Scientists say that this is only possible if the particle exists in different universes". That's rubbish. This experiment demonstrates the wave-particle duality of quantum mechanics; that matter behaves both as a wave and as particle; two aspects of a singular nature. I'm all for pop-science, but I can't tolerate junk science like this. It's harmful and it's condescending. I can't believe that this is anything other than intentionally misleading.

It's a shame how few documentaries do science justice. I'd recommend a good book: "Quantum Physics: A Beginner's Guide" by Alastair Rae if you can handle a little math, or "Deep Down Things, The Breathtaking Beauty of Particle Physics" by Bruce Schumm, which I'm reading currently and which is nothing short of brilliant.

Oh, and here is a great tip! If you like watching science videos, check out Professor Muller's "Physics for Future Presidents" web-casts (also known as "A Descriptive Introduction to Physics). These are video taped lectures from caltech. The dude rocks, he explains everything very clearly and he's a lot of fun to boot:

http://webcast.berkeley.edu/course_details.php?seriesid=1906978373

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

If you liked this - this all-star Sift will turn your crank.

Speaking of playlists, there doesn't seem to be a way of suggesting videos (in the old version I was supplying them to eric's Uber-save-playlist compilation). Was that taken away, or am I not seeing it?
By the way, here's mine: http://www.videosift.com/video/Quantum-Physics-Double-Slit-Experiment-amazing-results
(oops never mind, it's already there!)

The reason why an interference pattern is present in an unobserved double slit experiment is because that is the manifestation of Possibility. Showing everywhere it has the potential of being.

Just like a hologram card, all states exist, but due to a fluke of evolution, you can not see every angle at once. But by turning it in your hand, you selectively view which angle you want to see at that time. As with the universe, you selectively rotate it with your mind to follow the probability thread of least resistance.

I rather like the hologram better than the VHS tape, because you can't change the latter.

Of course, the idea that you can selectively view which "angle" of the holographic universe you wish has many questionable repercussions, not the least of which can head down lots of psudoscientific ideologies of self determination bordering on mysticism. How far down that rabbit hole I'm willing to go I wont say.

This is where things are going to start to get a little strange, and where I'm sure a lot of people are going to disagree. Hey, I welcome it. Every path to knowledge begins with a question. Now, let me continue.

The whole universe is like that VHS tape, or that baseball card. Only a lot more complex (this should go without saying).

And I do mean the WHOLE universe, not just how it is right now, in this second. Same with the VHS tape, it holds more than one second of the movie, and the baseball card holds more than one angle. The universe is more than one "frame" of time. It is every frame, from the beginning to the end.

My idea is that time does not move.

We do.

The universe -- or multiverse, if you like -- is a hologram baseball card with 11 dimensions of rotational freedom. Every state that the universe and all things in it CAN exist in, it already does. This moment in time that we are privy to existed before we got here, and all the past states are still there even though our perception has moved beyond them.

For some strange reason, it was evolutionarily advantageous to have stereo-optic vision. We have some slight visual angle differentiation. Not much, but enough to get by. Likewise, it was also evolutionarily advantageous to have linear 4th dimensional awareness. We know what came before, but not what comes next. Our ability to make assumptions on what might come next (and I stress might) is a relatively new thing. A "mental opposable thumb" so to speak, that gave us an edge. It gave us the ability to navigate the 4th dimension, instead of blindly addressing each second only when we arrive there.

One counterintuitive phenomenon it has made us aware of is the nature of the double slit experiment. The apparent assumption that observing has an effect on the outcome. I believe that the truth of the matter is that the single electrons exist everywhere, at every possible location in the universe.

http://www.videosift.com/video/Quantum-Physics-Double-Slit-Experiment-amazing-results

Cool vid though.

String theory is fun and looks good on paper, but I've read that many (most?) of the graduates who got into the field because it was the next big thing and didn't want to be left behind, have now abandoned it. It can never really be proven (as far as we know now). Which, for me, really brings up a rather disturbing thought. What if the "answer to everything" is so complicated and strange that it is simply beyond our grasp or ability to understand, and always will be. Religious folks, I know that leaves a pretty huge hole to insert your respective dogmas, but that wasn't my intention. I think it's just fascinating to believe that we are so intelligent we will eventually find any answers we seek, yet String Theory brings us to our knees. Hell, I'm still blown away by the double slit experiment. Maybe reality itself is a dimension of some kind. I can't wait to read what the LHC turns up.

in layman's terms: http://www.videosift.com/video/Quantum-Physics-Double-Slit-Experiment-amazing-results