double slit experiment.

Originally posted by twhitehead
Mathematics is all about doing things in abstract. We ask 'for the general case, what are the rules, and what are the implications'. All the other sciences are what is called 'applied maths' which means you take what you are researching, find out which general mathematics rule applies then see what the implications are for your specific case ie you apply ...[text shortened]... cientists can at best, only discover whether or not a rule applies to a real world scenario.

Excellent. That neatly captures Roger Penrose's affection for Plato's ideal forms because, by extension, you could argue that the material world is but a special case (perhaps the particular universe we happen to occupy?) of ideal mathematical forms. After all, what did Newton do but expose a mathematical formula to describe gravity and hence the movement of the planets and far more. An amusing essay by Kurt Vonegut has Newton kicking himself that he did not go further to discover Relativity, which was just sitting there in the mathematics. We can always go further and the universe will catch up later. (See God Bless You Dr Kevorkian by Kurt Vonegut).

Originally posted by stellspalfie
can anybody explain in a quantum mechanicvs for dummies kinda way (me being the dummy) why the matter behaves like a particle and a wave and why their behavior changes when observed. i saw the experiment on a documentary a while back and ive been thinking there must be a lot more to it than was explained.

...why the matter behaves like a particle and a wave...

Everything behaves as both a particle and a wave. It's just that sometimes you can describe what's going on in the "particle" limit, and sometimes you can describe it in the "wave" limit. Note however that both limits are not physical, it's not possible for a particle to be in one specific spot, nor is it possible for a wavelike particle to have just one definite wavelength.

why their behavior changes when observed

Well, you're simply talking about different things. Particle + measuring apparatus is a different system than just a particle. The probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics arises when you approximate part of the system by a classical system. If you regard a fully quantum mechanical system then there is no chance involved.