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[Neruz]

Somehow that just doesn't sound quite right.  What did they use to observe the process of the photon hitting the spots?  It can't have been photons, could it?  Doesn't light bounce a little bit as well?

Aaah, time for Quantums.

Make a piece of paper with two small holes in it a short distance apart.

Fire a photon at the piece of paper.

Which hole does the photon pass through?

The correct answer is 'both'.

[Cthulhu]

They probably used something along the lines of a Geiger counter to observe where it hit, something it would react to as it passed through.

Anyway, the crazy thing is that the particle-wave-whatevers only hit multiple spots if they weren't being observed.  If they were it picked one.  As I said once before, when you zoom in far enough you find that all the subatomic particles look like middle fingers.  They're flipping the bird to you and everything you thought you knew about the world.

[Neruz]

Actually they used the interference pattern observed.

It's called The Double-Slit Experiment, and somone did eventually work out how to measure how many photons were going through each slit without interfering with the waveform, and as it turned out the correct answer was still 'both'.

[LegoLord]

Oh.  But that's wave-particle duality.  I don't see why anyone should be drawing the conclusion of parallel dimensions from it.

[Neruz]

They shouldn't? Wave-particle duality has nothing to do with parallell universes.

[LegoLord]

They shouldn't? Wave-particle duality has nothing to do with parallell universes.

Exactly my point.

[dragnar]

I'm thinking the LHC will either go horribly wrong, or horribly right. The former meaning any of the current "LHC will end the world" theories in action, the latter meaning that humanity will uncover one of the universe's secrets and proceed to wreak havoc on the universe in its usual fashion.

The chances of the LHC ending the world are effectively zero. Much more energetic collisions than it can produce occur everyday in the upper atmosphere, so if they could destroy the world, we wouldn't be here.

[alway]

If my math is correct:
If you were to get in a space ship, assuming it has inertial dampeners, and accelerate at a rate of 3.8 km/s^2 for half a year, then decelerate at the same rate for half a year, by the time you stopped moving, 100 years would have gone by outside your space ship. Relativity is fun.

[Cthulhu]

Also, if you use improper jump fuel, trillions of years pass inside the space-time bubble containing your ship and the only thing that comes out at your destination is radioactive particles.

[dragnar]

You want proof the world won't survive 500 years?!? ^pirate Cthulhu.

[Neruz]

100th POST GET!

[Psyco Jelly]

They probably used something along the lines of a Geiger counter to observe where it hit, something it would react to as it passed through.

Anyway, the crazy thing is that the particle-wave-whatevers only hit multiple spots if they weren't being observed.  If they were it picked one.  As I said once before, when you zoom in far enough you find that all the subatomic particles look like middle fingers.  They're flipping the bird to you and everything you thought you knew about the world.

It's in my friggin sig from who knows how long ago.

[redacted123]

-

[Psyco Jelly]

Hehehe... I fail. It's still an awesome quote, though. It's kind of fitting that it came from Cthulhu.

[Dvergar]

It's called The Double-Slit Experiment, and somone did eventually work out how to measure how many photons were going through each slit without interfering with the waveform, and as it turned out the correct answer was still 'both'.

I believe the parallel universe part comes in when you have more than 2 slits.  Then all of a sudden you start getting theoretically impossible interference.