How is quantum randomness anymore mysterious than the randomness of a coin flip?\r
Youll see. \r
\r
The homework questions and extra readings are below:\r
\r
The questions:\r
1. What if there are three slits and you only have a detector at one. What does the wavefunction of a particle that goes through look like before and after?\r
2. The second question is about what counts as a measurement. I kind of implied that interions with air and light count as measurements. Do you think all interions count? \r
3. What about if a machine does a measurement and then, without storing it in memory, prints the result, and burns it. Is the wavefunction still collapsed? \r
4. And finally one about interpretations. What do you think of quantum randomness? Do you understand why physicists had problems with it? As you may know, there are hidden variable alternatives to Quantum mechanics that dont have true randomness; does this make them more appealing? Are there any issues with hidden variables? \r
\r
Citations and extra reading!\r
\r
-Check out this remarkable video on the randomness of coin flips: \r
-Also check out this great videos by Veritasium and Vsauce on this ex issue of apparent randomness (versus true randomness): and \r
\r
-If you want to know how to do really sophisticated stuff with the ideas touched on in the video, I highly recommend Ch 3 of Vol İ of the Feynman Lectures. \r
\r
-Einsteins quote in full is: As I have said so many times, God doesnt play dice with the world. .. At least according to wikiquote: