"Photon touching" was a somewhat glib way of putting it on my part.
What does your friend think of this statement:
When physicists say “observe”, they actually mean “measure”. And to measure a photon of light, you have to interact with it somehow, there is no passive way to do so.
oh boy, here I go banging this drum again:
When physicists say “observe”, they actually mean “measure”. And to measure a photon of light, you have to interact with it somehow, there is no passive way to do so.
The post’s header image implies that the interference pattern goes away just by looking at it. If that were the case, we would never see the interference pattern, never know it was there in the first place! In the actual experiment, they put a sensor at one or both of the slits. But to “sense” a single photon, you have to interact with it in some way. Otherwise you wouldn’t know it was there.
Again, this is where the language trips us up. Rather than “sensor”, would really be more accurate to say they put a photon-touch-er at the slits.
So, what we actually get is “Touching the photon changes the photon’s behavior.” The universe doesn’t magically infer when we happen to be looking at it, there is no spooky action-at-a-distance!
transcription:
Three Sisters Companion Planting
By the time European settlers arrived in America in the early 1600s, the Iroquois had been growing the "three sisters" for over three centuries. The vegetable trio sustained the Native Americans both physically and spiritually. In legend, the plants were a gift from the gods, always to be grown, eaten and celebrated together. The three sisters provide both sustainable soil fertility as well as a healthy diet from a single planting.
In spring, prepare the soil by adding fish scraps or wood ash to increase fertility.
Make a mound of soil a foot high and four feet wide. When the danger of frost has passed, sow six kernels of corn an inch deep and about ten inches apart in a circle of about 2 feet in diameter.
When the corn is about 5 inches tall, plant four bean seeds, evenly spaced, around each stalk.
About a week later, plant six squash seeds, evenly spaced around the perimeter of the mound.
After harvest, make three sisters succotash.
CORN: provides structure for the beans.
BEANS: pull nitrogen from the air and bring it to the soil and vines wind and twist towards the sunlight, they bind the three together and provide further structure.
SQUASH: The large leaves of the sprawling squash provide shade keeping the soil cool, moist and weed-free. create living mulch that shades moist and preventing weeds [sic]. The prickly squash leaves also keep away raccoons, which don't like to step on them.
TOGETHER: The three sisters provide both sustainable soil fertility as well as a healthy diet.
©2018 Chorlotte A Ricker www.rickerstudio.com
You can discount it if you like, but if we're trying to analyze how Russia justifies its invasion and perceives its relationships with other nations, then considering the recent past of various NATO members is relevant.
It's trademarked because capital has the ability to subsume all criticisms into itself.
Huh. Maybe there is no dragging quantum up to human scale comprehension. Like, we can only really describe this stuff with math equations.
Probably gonnna keep repeating my dumbed down summary though, cus I think for us laymen it helps more than it hinders.