parent
  • ColonBowel
    +5

    Thank you, but I'm even more behind than that. My trouble is with the paring. What does paired mean? How do we know they're paired? What do we do to pair them?

    • double2 (edited 8 years ago)
      +6

      How about this as a description - please someone correct me if I'm wrong here as I am very much an amateur on these things:

      Entanglement is when some object (a particle), which is considered one discrete whole object, has different parts of it in different actual locations whilst retaining its properties of being a whole present object. The parts still affect each other as they were physically attached to each other i.e. in the same observable physical location. The entanglement is the intrinsic link between the parts of the whole which keeps them associated with each-other on the quantum level.

      --HIDES FROM SCIENTISTS--

      EDIT: moved from below EDIT 2: May I recommend the following book - How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog - it won't please everyone, but as long as you don't take the fun way the book is written as condescending, it's a great ELI5 explanation of a lot of the concepts of quantum physics.

      • SevenTales
        +3

        Heh, it's not a bad way to put it simply by the way. :D

      • ColonBowel
        +3

        Thanks! I put that book on my wish list to pick up when I'm done with the ones I'm currently reading.

    • spaceghoti
      +6

      What does paired mean? How do we know they're paired? What do we do to pair them?

      Would it help if we described it as "mirroring"? It's when one particle mirrors the behavior of another even though they're physically separated (not part of the same molecular bond). We know they're paired when they exhibit the same behavior at the same time in spite of not being joined in any way that we know how to measure.

      This article does a pretty good job of explaining how we do it.

      • SevenTales
        +4

        that is a way better answer than anything I came up with! thanks for the link :)

      • double2 (edited 8 years ago)
        +2

        moved

        EDIT: replied to wrong comment, oops!

        • spaceghoti
          +3

          I think that's an accurate description, but if he's having as much difficulty as he says I don't know if that will help.

          Full disclosure: I'm a layman at best, myself.

        • double2 (edited 8 years ago)
          +3
          @spaceghoti -

          I guess what I was trying to add is that it's like an object is still one piece, but it's component parts are not connected in a static visual sense, only in a behavioural sense. Oh, that's a much simpler explanation in itself... the particle is not visually together in one piece but it is behaviourally so.

        • spaceghoti
          +3
          @double2 -

          I think that works much better. :) Well done!

    • SevenTales
      +3

      Oh! That's an easier and at the same time harder question to answer. There's a lot of ways to make them "pair", which just mean that their states are identical. Entanglement just mean exactly what I described. The two particles, instead of having separate "quantum states", really only have one, which makes them behave like they do. As to how, the most used way is, and prepare for the fancy title, Spontaneous parametric down-conversion. It's more than a little complicated, but can be boiled down to this: We shoot a high powered laser at a special crystal (made out of barium borate). Most of the time, the photons go through normally, but then something happens: Sometimes, a photon is split, and instead of going straight, goes in 2 opposite directions (in the shape of a cone), and you get two entangled photons.

      • ColonBowel
        +3

        So it's the same photon in 2 different places? If so, did we just create something?

        • SevenTales
          +2

          We didn't create anything, as the 2 photons's energies are equal to the original photon. So it's not the same photon, and we did not create anything either.