J. DeVore

 Discuss the role of thought experiments in the development and interpretation of quantum theory. Provide specific examples and analyze their contributions.

A thought experiment is when you present an image that lets you test out an idea in your brain without setting up a physical experiment. One way that a thought experiment was an interpretation of quantum theory is that it allowed Einstein to think over his ideas before making the physical experiment. He tried to disprove quantum theory with thought experiments. One thought experiment that Einstein came up with was the light’s split that would let someone move the curtain to determine the velocity of the light going through the curtain. However Niels Bohr said that if you move the curtain then you can’t tell the velocity of the light or the curtain's velocity. Bohr was able to disprove Einstein’s box experiment. Another way was Schrodinger’s cat experiment where the thought is that the cat in the box is both alive and dead. Schrodinger’s experiment represents quantum theory because it shows that particles are both in one place and in another place at the same time, just as the cat is alive and dead at the same time. Altogether thought experiments make your brain think of other ways to do the experiment and they are easier to understand than math or scientific experiments.

Explore the implications of quantum entanglement for our understanding of reality, causality, and the nature of space and time.

Quantum entanglement is where one particle could instantly cause another particle to spin in one direction or another, even though the particles are not right next to each other. Where two electrons spin opposite directions they are connected together and when one spin changes the other spin also changes in the opposite direction.  The two particles are entangled even though they might be galaxies apart and the idea is that they have to change with each other. Einstein hated quantum entanglement and called it “spooky action at a distance” but it is proven to be true. This means because the spin change happens instantly that the change happens faster than the speed of light which Einstein thought was impossible. Bohr thought that this was possible; he did not know that Einsein was wrong. In 1982 an experiment at Orsay looked at entangled photons and showed that they did change each other instantly. Actions really far apart from each other can happen instantly cause changes even faster than anything can travel between them. Other people after Einstein tried to come up with ways of explaining quantum entanglement without “spooky actions at a distance.” So there is no way yet to solve Quantum entanglement.