Cyber Ghosts

Chapter 110 Schrödinger’s Period
What a lechery baldy! Hao Ning despised Liu Shuai in his heart and continued to speak, “That’s right. When we discovered this phenomenon, many physicists did not believe it, because it did not make sense logically, and it’s also completely different from the experiences we had in real life. So, this guy, Schrödinger, did a famous thought experiment, Schrödinger’s cat. ”

After saying that, everyone looked at Hao Ning, and even Long Fei, who was a nuclear physics doctor, looked at him. Hao Ning felt a little awkward, he stopped for a moment, and asked Miss Ren: “Teacher Ren, was my description correct?”

“That’s what it means.” Teacher Ren said with a smile and nodded. “Some small details, such as this so-called observer is not an intuitionistic observer, but it is too complicated, we can understand without details.”

Hao Ning was secretly amused, “Actually, that’s all I know, I really can’t explain it if you ask me to.” Seeing that he could fool others, he continued to speak, “Schrodinger said that if there was a black box, and inside the box, there was a cat, a bottle of poison and a radioactive element. When the radioactive element decayed, this bottle of poison would kill the cat. Otherwise, the cat should be alive.”

“What is decay means?” This time, it was Wen who asked.

“Err …” It was not right to make a joke with Wen, so Hao Ning scratched his head and thought for a while, “You can understand it as a special kind of change, this change is special. You will know that it will happen within a period. For example, it will happen in a week, but no one knows the exact time.”

“It’ll happen in a week, but no one knows the exact time….” Wen frowned, and subconsciously said, “Why does it sound like having a period ….”

“Ah? Hahaha…” Hao Ning and Long Fei were startled for a moment, and then immediately laughed out loud. It’s quite true that every woman had a period timetable, but no one could tell the exact date. Hao Ning laughed as he praised, “Wen, you’re a genius, I’ve read so many versions of the explanation, but this is the first time I’ve heard someone described the key factor as a period. In this case, it seems like the theory should be called Schrödinger’s period rather than Schrödinger’s cat to make everything crystal clear, right?”

Wen’s face reddened. She was a girl after all, and a doctor, so she would naturally think of something related to her.

“All right, Hao Ning, go on.” Liu Shuai saw that Wen felt embarrassed, so he urged Hao Ning to go on.

“Got it,” Hao Ning had seen through the real character of his friend Liu Shuai: girls first, then friends. “Since everyone understands this small detail, we should think of one thing: The period…oh no, as long as the radioactive element in the box decays, the cat will die. However, we only know that the radioactive element in the black box may decay in a period. So here comes the question, can anyone tell the cat is alive or dead at a certain moment?”

“Hmm?” Liu Shuai was startled, “How can anyone know that? If the period comes, oh no, this radioactive element decayed, the cat is dead, if not, it’s alive. So the cat can be alive or dead. ”

“Well said!” Hao Ning nodded, “Then how do you know if this cat is alive or dead?”

“It’s easy.” Liu Shuai thought that Hao Ning was an idiot, “Why don’t you just open the box and take a look?”

“Hahaha, that’s right!” Hao Ning laughed, “This is Schrödinger’s cat experiment.”

“What experiment?” Liu Shuai was confused again, “There’s no experiment at all! Isn’t that normal? ”

“That’s right, it’s reasonable if you think that way,” Hao Ning nodded, and continued to ask, “But what this experiment means is, when an observer like you does not observe the cat in the box, the cat could be considered as both alive and dead. It’s a superposition. However, when you start to observe the cat, the superposition of the cat will change into a specific state. This is the quantum mechanics experiment I was talking about. With observers or not, the results are different. That’s what Schrödinger wanted to explain. ”

“Well said. Although Schrodinger did not intend to explain… However, it’s already straightforward to understand,” Miss Ren nodded, looking at Hao Ning in praise, “It’s effortless to understand, and you can also get the key point. If you write a scientific article, it will be perfect.”

“Err …” Hao Ning thought to himself, if the old lady found out that he had not written any scientific articles, but some novels about gods and ghosts on the website, she might say something else. Thus, he only smiled humbly without saying anything.

“How interesting!” Wen was still a little unsatisfied and continued to ask, “Is there anything else that’s interesting?”

“Um —” Hao Ning lowered his head and thought for a moment, then asked a question with a smile, “Does anyone know the fastest speed is in the universe?”

“I know this,” Liu Shuai nodded his head, this was something he had learned when he was young, “The light, there’s nothing faster than light.” After saying that, he thought for a moment and then added, “Of course, the mythical stories don’t count.”

Hao Ning understood what he meant and nodded his head, “Yes, but in quantum mechanics, the quantum entanglement phenomenon seems to be a particular case. Because even two entanglement quanta are very far apart, if one quantum’s state has changed, the others will also change. It’s said that this speed is ten thousand times faster than light.

“How is that possible?” Wen’s eyes widened, and her face was filled with disbelief as she shook her head. “This is completely different from what my teacher taught me in high school. The teacher said there was nothing faster than light.”

“This…” Hao Ning scratched his head. He couldn’t say that Wen’s teacher was wrong, so he could only ask old lady Ren to help.

“Young people are incredible,” Miss Ren saw that Hao Ning was troubled, she laughed and nodded her head, “Although there are some things wrong, in general, you are right. Wen, don’t make things difficult for Hao Ning anymore, what he said is the truth, it’s just that that speed is not the speed you know. However — “Miss Ren turned her head back to Hao Ning, “I still have to correct something, it’s not that the speed of quantum entanglement is ten thousand times faster than light’s, but the speed of quantum entanglement that can be detected right now is at least ten thousand times faster than light’s.”

Hearing Miss Ren’s words, Liu Shuai and Wen were even more surprised, but they did not ask.

“You can travel the world without riding or driving. The universe will soon come to an end, and everything will decay after the autumn.” Miss Ren suddenly recited a poem and sighed, “This is a poem about immortals from an ancient novel. It said the ancient immortals could arrive anywhere in an instant. It’s like the principle of quantum entanglement. Of course, all the extraordinary things of quantum mechanics only exist in the microcosm. Our macrocosm is not that magical. ”

“The universe will soon come to an end…” When Liu Shuai heard this, his heart stopped, and he couldn’t help but feel sad. This was a poem about the son of the cloud, Zhang Quan, whom he quarreled with two days ago, the father he didn’t accept till now.

“Ah, old woman, you’re good at everything,” Mr. Chen shook his head and said with disapproval, “But the idea of confounding reality and legend. Modern science is modern science, how can it be related to myths and legends? ”

“Many legends are significant to learn from,” Miss Ren said, shaking her head. “You can also be considered an open-minded person, but why can’t you admit the meaning of this idea? In the course of quantum scientific research, I have many suspects that quantum mechanics has something to do with the creation of human consciousness — many of the tremendous scientific conclusions came from bold hypotheses and rigorous tests. ”

“Come on, again?” when she mentioned Mr. Chen’s specialty, he was spirited. He smiled and waved his hand, “Modern medicine has proven that the synapses create human consciousness in the human brain …”

“Synapses, synapses, you just can’t let it go —” Miss Ren interrupted Mr. Chen impatiently. “How can such a simple physical study explain the difference in human consciousness?”

“That’s because —” Mr. Chen opened his mouth and was about to speak, but he was interrupted by Miss Ren. “Old Chen, I will ask you a simple question. You said that the bioelectricity phenomena created consciousness among the synapses in the human brain. Does it mean that if you could know the compositions and current states of every molecules and atom of the human brain, and the laws of bioelectricity transmission, you will know what this person is thinking right now and figure out what he will do in the future?”

“This… Of course —” Mr. Chen was stunned by the question.

“This question seems to be a paradox?” Wen thought about it carefully and then said with a frown, “It seems that if we truly know about the complete composition of a person’s brain and the operation of brain, through highly precise calculations, just like a formula, we should be able to know what that person is thinking right now, and what he will do in the future. However, how is that possible? I don’t even know what I will think or do in the future, how could others know that?”

“That’s right…” When Liu Shuai saw that Wen was thinking about this question, so he followed and said, “How can it be possible that a person is not the one who knows his or her consciousness best but others? If someone knows what I’m going to do when I don’t know it myself, doesn’t that mean that the future of my life is already set? ”

After saying that, Liu Shuai and Wen looked at each other, shuddered and shook their heads, “Absolutely not!”

“This, um…” It was clear that Mr. Chen was also thinking about it. Although he was studying the nerves, he was more practical in solving specific problems. As for the ultimate issues that involved physical aspects, they were not his main lines of thinking.

“Stop saying ‘this’,” Old Madam Ren was a little angry, “You can’t justify your idea, but still forbid me to make assumptions. Sigh, as an old professor, you are really living in the past. You are just locking your mind!”

“I lock my mind?” Mr. Chen was already bothered by this question, so when he heard this, he became angry, “All right, all right, I locked my mind while you are open-mind. You better focus on your revolution and cross the river by feeling the rocks! Be careful, or you might….”

“Dare you say that!” When Old Lady Ren heard the Old Man Chen’s words, she hurriedly pointed at his nose and said, “Dare you to say anything about that again?”

“…” Mr. Chen seemed to know that he had said something wrong, so he shut his mouth and did not speak. However, he was so angry that he could not speak.

“Shit, they’re arguing again…” Hao Ning felt helpless in his heart, but he really did not know how to persuade them. One reason was that he was not familiar with the two elders; the other reason was that they were both very accomplished in their fields. If he recklessly began to persuade them, due to his “speech” just now, the two elders would ask him to judge. In that case, what could he do? At this time, Hao Ning roughly understood why Miss Ren was teaching at the university in Pingjing while Mr. Chen was in Chang An. They both had terrible tempers and had their own opinions in the study. If they could be able to stay together for more than a day without arguing, it would be a “miracle” in human psychology. It was unknown how the two of them had managed to be together for so many years.

“Grandpa, grandma!”

Wen was about to comfort the two elders, but unexpectedly, a man’s voice came from behind. She turned her head back to look, then smiled politely and called out: “Cousin.”