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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!!
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To: Grainne who wrote (12068)8/2/1997 12:51:00 AM
From: Lyle Abramowitz   of 108807
 
Grace,

I don't think this experiment is really radical although it sounds interesting. There is a great deal of theoretical quantum behavior that is very strange as far as our intuition is concerned. Physicists construct idealized experiments to illustrate ideas. Often it is difficult to actually perform these "thought-experiments" as they are sometimes called in the laboratory. So the significance may be more in the fact of the experiment than the result itself.

Newspaper science writers often aren't well-versed in the details --so for example the statement that "the two neighboring wave functions overlap slightly but remain distinct" makes no sense to me. Apparently the helium atoms are jumping between two states that are distinguishable by their spatial separation. If the Chronicle article indicates where this result was published I can take a look at it.

There is a lot of strange stuff to discuss in quantum mechanics--and I'd be happy to do so to the extent of my limited abilities. As it turns out, I'm reading Feynman's "elementary" quantum mechanics treatment now.

As far as Ted Kennedy is concerned, I agree with your assessment. I am a bit less sympathetic as for whatever baggage he had from his family he also enjoyed incredible wealth and privilege. He was probably drunk when he drove the car off the bridge at Chapaquidick and didn't take responsibility.

Anyway, I'd rather talk about quantum mechanics.

Lyle
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