Friday, February 14, 2020

Quantum Entanglement

I made a post quite a while back on "Quantum Entanglement for Dummies" that tried to describe what it is. I emphasized the fact that this phenomenon is different than classical physics because of one every important characteristics of quantum mechanics, which is the superposition principle that is built into the quantum wavefunction. So to be able to understand why quantum entanglement exists and why it is so "spooky", one must first understand the superposition concept.

Don Lincoln has produced a video on quantum entanglement, and if you pay attention closely, he starts off with describing the superposition concept and how that made a quantum system not "predetermined" before a measurement. He also give a good overview on a Bell-type measurement that shows how experiments agree with QM description but not the hidden variables scenario.



A good video to start you off on understanding this phenomenon.

Zz.

Monday, February 03, 2020

State of the Art of MRI

This is a very good article from Physics Today on the history and development of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, which has become ubiquitous in medical diagnostics. Of course, this came out of the discovery of the nuclear magnetic resonance phenomenon, a technique that itself came out of our understanding of quantum mechanics.

When you read this article, pay attention to how it is continuing to be developed, to evolve, and its continuing improvement. Medical physicists are still actively improving this, and other aspect of the medical field by incorporating things that physicists already know and use. Without advancement in physics, both theoretically and experimentally, there is nothing to trickle down from to the medical field.

Zz.