Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Quick update

Not much time today because I've been making a Trig quiz and solutions:
Quiz: http://www.sendspace.com/file/3pyxjf
Solutions: http://www.sendspace.com/file/nw6ttq

Now for today's theory, I'll talk about The Copenhagen Interpretation. The Interpretation is basically a collection of ideas to explain quantum mechanics. The main ideas is that every particle can be described as a wave function. Another idea is that anything can happen at any time since Heisenberg uncertainty principle's states all electrons are just probability clouds, and all waves are also probabilities since the electrons are waves. Think about that.... Anything, Anytime. Intense. This idea sprouted from the Double Slit Experiment which concludes if an electron is shot at a wall with two slits, the electron will sometimes go through one, sometimes through the other, sometimes neither, and sometimes both (which means the one electron would be at two places at once)! But when the scientists closely observed the electrons, they go normally through only one of the two slits. Basically say "owned".

Finally, another infamous experiment that accomplices the Copenhagen Interpretation is the Schrodinger’s Cat thought experiment. I'm not sure if there was actually an experiment or was it just a theory. Basically, the experiments concludes that if a cat is in a box and a button is pressed which has a 50% chance of releasing poisonous gas into the box, the cat would be alive AND dead as long as no one goes to actually look at the cat.

Awesome Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY1rbOM7vbg

Question of the day: what would happen when you are theoretically at the exact center of the earth? Assuming, we're superman and we don't die from the heat. What effect would the gravity have on us? The spinning of the earth, etc.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

you will be forced to spin with the earth. That's what i think.

Michael said...

We would be compressed, as gravity pushes you from all directions.

Unknown said...

Would there still be gravity? According to the equation for gravity? It's (GMm)/(r^2). When are IS 0, the function would be an asymptote. That means infinite amount of gravity? And as to JIAYUN, would be spin with the earth, or would the earth just spin around us, and we would stay stationary?...

Anonymous said...

lmao, we actually talked about a similar question in physics class the other day. You'll "float" because the force of gravity in every direction if balanced if you're in the centre of the earth. =D