Wave/Particule duality of the photon

[ecoli]

What I am telling is that he is never both. Probability of being both 0%

I am not expert in QM but I have the feeling that QM is all about probabilities and that the expert speak about superposition when they don`t know the state of a particule.

 

It is never both, but until you know if it is one state or the other, you must equally assume it's state is 1 or 0. I'm asking how we can apply this knowledge into quantum computers.

[swansont]

It is never both, but until you know if it is one state or the other, you must equally assume it's state is 1 or 0.

 

It's more than assuming. The particle is in both states.

[ecoli]

It's more than assuming. The particle is in both states.

 

but how is this applied to quantum computers?

[J.C.MacSwell]

It's more than assuming. The particle is in both states.

 

We know the particle can be considered to be somewhat (have I qualified it enough yet?) in both states as it can "interfere with itself".

 

What is the largest object, as a whole, that has been shown to interfere with itself?

[swansont]

We know the particle can be considered to be somewhat (have I qualified it enough yet?) in both states as it can "interfere with itself".

 

What is the largest object' date=' as a whole, that has been shown to interfere with itself?[/quote']

 

I know that separate Bose-Einstein condensates have been shown to interfere.

[Guest mexicomarti]

Just a clarification here. It's Schrodinger's cat, named after Erwin Schrodinger, to explain this highly confusing principle which he proposed in 1935.

 

Marti in Mexico

[ecoli]

Just a clarification here. It's Schrodinger's cat' date=' named after Erwin Schrodinger, to explain this highly confusing principle which he proposed in 1935.

 

Marti in Mexico[/quote']

 

who needed clarification?

[Severian]

Just a clarification here. It's Schrödinger's cat, or alternatively Schroedinger's cat, but not Schrodinger's cat.

[J.C.MacSwell]

Just a clarification here. It's Schrodinger's cat' date=' named after Erwin Schrodinger, to explain this highly confusing principle which he proposed in 1935.

 

Marti in Mexico[/quote']

 

1935? I'll say dead. Just a guess.

[swansont]

Just a clarification here. It's Schrödinger's cat, or alternatively Schroedinger's cat, but not[/b'] Schrodinger's cat.

 

 

I thought it belonged to his wife

[SHtRO]

The "wave-function" is a mathematical tool to describe the "probability wave". Take the photon for example. Such a probability wave collapses when we know where the photon is (or isn't) and the probability becomes 1 (or 0). That is to say, until we know where the photon is, mathematically we have to use the probability wave function. Once we know where the photon is (or isn't), the probability becomes 1 or 0 of it being in a particular place. No "wave-function", just a discrete value.