Scientific musings threat

[jasong]

I was originally going to call this the "Scientific mental masturbation thread," but I like my new title better. I put it in the Soap Box in the hopes people will be less likely to flame the hell out of it.

Okay, first topic:quantum entanglement

I'm a total ignoramus when it comes to the actual science behind quantum entanglement, I'm more in the "OMG, that's so frickin' awesome!!!" crowd. But it's still very intriguing to me.

One result(possibly multiple results now) showed that even though they couldn't actually tell the particle what to transmit to the other particle, multiple kilometers away(so not an American experiment, obviously), the "transmission" of the random information was either instantaneous or so fast that the scientists couldn't measure the time in any meaningful way. I don't remember the exact number, but it was said that if the information somehow traveled through normal space that it meant the information had traveled in excess of 1,000 times the speed of light. Assuming we're correct that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, what are we left with?

(1) Alternate dimensions where the particles are (a) closer, (b) the speed of light is higher (c) both or (d) a or b is right, but the other option is wrong.

(2) Some answer that is correct but that I don't comprehend.

(3) Frickin' strings man, lots and lots of strings, and you can tie em together and stuff. I know we've got more possible theories than there are atoms in the universe, but it's legit, I promise.

I probably should've gone to the wiki page before I posted this, but...I'll do that now and check back.

[xilman]

Originally Posted by jasong

I was originally going to call this the "Scientific mental masturbation thread," but I like my new title better. I put it in the Soap Box in the hopes people will be less likely to flame the hell out of it.

Okay, first topic:quantum entanglement

I'm a total ignoramus when it comes to the actual science behind quantum entanglement, I'm more in the "OMG, that's so frickin' awesome!!!" crowd. But it's still very intriguing to me.

One result(possibly multiple results now) showed that even though they couldn't actually tell the particle what to transmit to the other particle, multiple kilometers away(so not an American experiment, obviously), the "transmission" of the random information was either instantaneous or so fast that the scientists couldn't measure the time in any meaningful way. I don't remember the exact number, but it was said that if the information somehow traveled through normal space that it meant the information had traveled in excess of 1,000 times the speed of light. Assuming we're correct that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, what are we left with?

(1) Alternate dimensions where the particles are (a) closer, (b) the speed of light is higher (c) both or (d) a or b is right, but the other option is wrong.

(2) Some answer that is correct but that I don't comprehend.

(3) Frickin' strings man, lots and lots of strings, and you can tie em together and stuff. I know we've got more possible theories than there are atoms in the universe, but it's legit, I promise.

I probably should've gone to the wiki page before I posted this, but...I'll do that now and check back.

Almost certainly (2).

[CRGreathouse]

I'd vote for (2) as well. It's wrong to think of this as "information" that "travels"; the particles are just entangled. You couldn't use it to send a message from A to B faster than the speed of light since all you get is noise (the 'same' noise, but noise nonetheless).