How observer effect reality simply by observing

Transcript

to make an observation you somehow have to interact with the system for example you have to shine light on it which then bounces off and you observe the light that's how we can tell that a baseball is here or there we bounce light off of it well for macroscopic particles that doesn't disturb them very much but for microscopic particles the act of bouncing the light off of the particle changes where it is and how it's moving so in the microscopic universe where photons of light are about the same size as subatomic particles these photons have a big impact when they illuminate the particles so we can see them but this doesn't answer the question why doesn't the light simply change the direction of the subatomic particles why does observation actually change the nature of what is being observed the short answer is we don't know this is the fundamental mystery of quantum mechanics the reason why quantum mechanics is difficult mysteriously when we look at things we see particles then we're not looking things are waves this is something we scientists have argued passionately about now for almost a hundred years and there's still no consensus when they were first released a century ago these test results were enough to unsettle the brightest mind in science Einstein said I don't believe in quantum physics because I believe the moon is there even when I'm not looking at it Einstein was of course referring to the implications of the theory that the moon really isn't anywhere until it's observed however the double-hole experiment's mind-boggling conclusions don't end there in recent years technology has allowed scientists to perform a fascinating variation of the test its results call into question our perception of time itself this is like a high-tech version of the double-hole experiment electrons are being fired toward a barrier with two holes in it but the scientists can delay their decision about whether to observe the electrons until after they've passed through the holes but before they hit the screen it's as though I'm on a baseball field and there's a baseball being pitched toward the barrier with the holes in it but my eyes are closed so it goes through and it behaves like a wave but then at the last second before it hits the screen I open my eyes and decide to observe it at that moment the electrons in essence become particles and seemingly always were particles from the time they left the electron gun so it's as though they went back in time to before they went through the holes and decided to go through one or the other not through both as they would have had they been behaving like waves that's really crazy that's the Enigma that our choice of what experiment to do determines the prior state of the electron somehow or other we've had an influence on it which appears to travel backwards in a time