Originally posted by sonhouseis it a quantum effect if it is nano-sized?
I just read an article in the latest Physics World about the
mechanics of quantum mechanics. It shows recent work that really
boggles my mind, I guess it doesn't take much to boggle me but
this is amazing: the idea of superpositon of states is going macro.
They took this nanosized lever or reed and cause it to vibrate but
it is close to absolute zero ...[text shortened]... g is in both up and down positions at the same time.
Jeez, that boggles my sleep deprived mind!
Originally posted by zeeblebotThats the amazing thing, scientists are now going into the macro
is it a quantum effect if it is nano-sized?
world, past nano sized objects into stuff you can maybe see.
I wonder what a pickup (sound or rf, not sure which you need) would
give, that is to say, like a harmonica reed which vibrates at a certain
rate, say 440 Hertz (A on the piano) and you have an acoustic
pickup of some kind (mike, piezo,etc) and you display the output
on an oscilloscope you will see a pretty pure sine wave centered
on 440 hertz and maybe some 880 Hz, 1st harmonic, etc. Now
you take this quantum reed thing and hook a pickup to it, I think
in this case its megahertz not hertz but you do the same thing
and present the signal on an oscilloscope, what would you see?
If its superpositioned so there is a reed in the up and in the down
position simultaneously would they always vibrate in such a way as
never to "touch"? Would they produce the same frequency as a single
classical science reed? Or would there be a differant set of harmonics
or maybe it would be ALL second harmonic. I would like to know the
answer to that one.
Well I think that question is answered. If you try to make a
measurement of the system like putting a pickup next to it and
amplifying that signal, the superposition state collapses to one
state, that of a regular reed and would only give you the resonant
frequency of a single reed so you couldn't do what I want to anyway.
I wonder if there is some lower energy limit that you could bounce
off it without it declaring a single state? I guess that would be around
the planck energy area so we would not be able to take advantage
of it. Too bad.