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Slightly off topic, but I've read that atoms, or at least subatomic particles can be in two places at once. Is this true ? I know there are lots of smart people in this group; so my question is how does that hypothesis apply to me, or any human being. Can a person be in two different places at the same moment in time? I mean, hypothetically speaking...
Aug 12, 2015
0
#2
Hypothetically, yes, though I think it is completely infeasible with current technology. Also, it is only possible with deep frozen humans in a hard vacuum: see below.
I infer this from the facts firstly that quantum mechanics permits this, and secondly that it has been achieved for increasingly large objects. The current record is an object with a mass of about 10,000 AMUs (that's 10,000 times as heavy as hydrogen). See https://medium.com/the-physics-arxiv-blog/physicists-smash-record-for-wave-particle-duality-462c39db8e7b
Note that, in order to avoid decoherence, an experiment with the human being sent through two slits simultaneously would have to be executed in a space at an extremely low temperature. Moreover, it would have to be in a very hard vacuum: no more than the density of intergalactic space, which has about 1 hydrogen atom per cubic meter.
How low a temperature is needed can be estimated by the idea that if one photon distinguishes the fact that you are in one slit or the other, the experiment fails. So deep space with the cosmic microwave background is surely nowhere near cold enough for this experiment.
Wien's displacement law says peak frequency is related to wavelength by the formula:
lambda = 2.89777×10−3 / T
(using SI units)
So, if the slits are say 2 m apart, you need a temperature which is much smaller than a milliKelvin to avoid decoherence.
Soooo... I'd be dead. So much for duality of existence if I can't enjoy the phenomenon. Thank you Elroch for your above post. I'm gonna stick with my notions of mind and body dualism instead.
Oct 13, 2015
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#5
Elroch nailed this one. A two slit experiment involving a human would never have occurred to me. Nice to meet out of the box thinkers. Not the Schrodenger's cat box, in this case.
" Slightly off topic, but I've read that atoms, or at least subatomic particles can be in two places at once. Is this true ? " Fermions, and Bosons both require and exist at all times , in exactly ONE spock, (space particle). That is exactly one place, they ARE NEVER in two places. Isotopes and atoms need many spocks, including the space particles that the bosons must travel thru to hold the particle together and is part of that particle. Something like 10**20 particles in the smallest case. Therefor , of course, these particles are in multiple places. But all their fermions are only in one place at a time. In some cases two fermions are created, this is still a system of particles and the exact same conditions exist until the chain (again space particles) that held them together brakes. While the other comments here were nice, best you stick to this one.
