Yesterday I saw a photograph of an atom. And the first thought I had was:
This is not an atom.
Even though it was an atom that was behind the impression I looked at, it reminded me of a pin toy, one of those toys that was a matrix of sliding pins that record impressions of things pressed into it.
http://www.joelertola.com/tutorials/disp/displacement1.htmlThen later, I went out lat at night, and as I walked to my car, I looked around the street. I looked at the house opposite, at the door, and windows, and wondered - is this observation? Did I just change the house by looking? If so how?
It seems to me that in terms of quantum mechanics, observation requires something from OUTSIDE the quantum system to affect it, such as a new light source, or electron bombardment or whatever, in order to change it.
If there was a light and a video cam in the box with schroedinger's cat, would it make any difference if we looked at the display or not...
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