The Layman'sGuide ToQuantum Reality

3 LAWS OF QUANTUM THEORY

The way I see it, Quantum Theory started as a mathematical exercise in probability calculations, and ended up being an exercise in metaphysics. Quantum equations yield general solutions. A general solution is a 'plug and play' solution. A general solution is a solution, which yields specific solutions when you substitute specific variable values into the general equation. In many cases, one valid solution set of a general solution is the positive and negative number values of 'the answer.'

Because there are more than one specific solutions to quantum equations, it is necessary to calculate a probability of finding the system with which the equation is concerned in one state, versus finding the system in a different state. This simple calculation of probabilities became complicated when Heisenberg came up with his Uncertainty Principle.

Heisenberg stated that there are certain data that must be forbidden to know by the Observer of an event. He was talking about events in the microscopic world of elementary particles, such as electrons. His simple claim that the Observer can know one part of the status of a particle, but will be excluded from knowing a complimentary information or data about the particle's status at the same time blew a lot of Physicists' minds.

You can know the momentum or location of a particle, but not both at the same time. This was intended to apply to the microscopic level only, and Heisenberg never intended it to apply to the macro-scale universe. Particles are neither particles or waves but are 'smeared' over the small space most likely to contain them, and this throws some of the variables of calculation into doubt at any particular measurement time.

You can measure the momentum of a particle by observing the effects via the use of your measurement device, or you can detect the particle position using your devices, but measuring either status increases the uncertainty of the other one because the measurement you can make is a probabilistic one rather than a certain and specific one.

Heisenberg was showing that specific solutions could not be made for all aspects of a probability equation because doing so would be to turn a general equation solution of probability into a specific solution with no probability uncertainty. Let us see the form for momentum (p) and velocity (v) of a particle.

The simple equation is

ΔxΔp≥h/4π

Remember that this equation calculates the uncertainties in x and p in relation to each other:

Δx is the uncertainty in position x

Δp is the uncertainty in momentum p

h/4π is a constant number. For our purposes let us call it C and say that it is equal to 1. As a probability calculation, remember that the uncertainty in x or p cannot be zero, nor can the number usefully be incalculable.

ΔxΔp≥h/4π becomes ΔxΔp≥C becomes ΔxΔp≥1

Δx≥1/Δp and Δp≥1/Δx

When the uncertainty in position x falls to certainty because it has been measured, by definition and mathematics, the certainty in the momentum p must decrease, and vice versa. We do not have to solve the equation to see that this is true since each of the uncertainties in this equation is in the reciprocal form of each other.

Physicists promptly jumped on the idea of this being a demonstration of 'The Observer Effect.' The observer effect is the idea that you cannot observe a particle without bumping it with some force used in the measurement, making it different from what the measurement shows after the measurement. While this is generally true in the process, it has nothing to do with Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle.

A couple of different Observer-related relationships were revealed in the aftermath of deriving the Uncertainty Principle. The first was the effect of observation itself, where the Observer defined the property of the particle by observation and found that he was effecting the uncertainty of the complementary properties by the change in the probability mathematics that the observation yielded. The second was the Observer Effect mentioned in the last paragraph, where the act of observation perturbed the system being observed, changing the status of the particle after observation of part of the system of properties.