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Technology Stocks : Quantum Computing
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To: Vendit™ who wrote (35)7/10/2001 8:50:27 PM
From: Gulo  Read Replies (1) of 65
 
By the "and then" I mean only that it is hard to grasp how you can have a before and after when there is no time before the big bang. Of course, the fact of the matter is that there was no "before" the big bang as far as our time reference is concerned. That leaves us with the somewhat easier <g> task of grasping that there can be an "after" without there being a "before". All we need is the event.

As far as tunneling goes, the name is very misleading. It does not mean the particle actually tunnels through anything.

In field theory, the particle cannot really be claimed to be in any one place until it is measured to be in that place. Rather than say "a particle moves towards a barrier" you could say "a probability distribution moves towards a barrier." The probability distribution for, say, an electron is much larger than the "electron" that ends up being measured (by many orders of magnitude). If the center of the probability distribution ends up on this side of the barrier, its edges can overlap the barrier. There is therefor a finite probability that the electron can be measured on the other side of the barrier. If it is measured there, we say it has "tunneled" across the barrier.

How's that for a 3D explanation?

Since I am not yet a physicist, I would welcome any clarifications from the physicists lurking here.
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