I like watching popular science type videos. Everybody who tries to explain quantum mechanics always uses the word "collapse" and they always pull it out of nowhere and make no effort to describe what the hell they're talking about. Why is this? Are they being paid off by the dictionary people to use specifically that word or something? Do I have to actually learn physics if I want to know what's going on here?
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@MegaMichelle Einstein's opposition to quantum mechanics included a paper complaining that the equations for alpha particle emission described an expanding probability sphere, but in a cloud chamber, the alpha particle makes a linear track. He wasn't thinking about all the other atoms in the cloud chamber. The probability sphere "collapses" into a line when the alpha particle starts affecting the behavior of other atoms. Physicists call that "a measurement" or "an observation" that reduces (collapses) the area of probability from being a cloud (or other shape) into a point or line. It could be said that the wave of probability collapses into a particle of actuality.
https://youtu.be/gY6Jr7tB2fU?si=N7YP-GZjVS7bKDst
We see light behaving as a wave most of the time and behaving as photon only when it hits matter.
Why must the word "collapse" be used here? There has to be a specific reason, because it is used every time with no variation. Other physics phenomena, you can describe in different ways. The uniformity of the word "collapse" here implies that it is some sort of technical jargon, but I haven't seen anybody explain why this word was chosen and how it differs from everyday use of the word, such that its status as jargon is warranted.
@MegaMichelle what else does a wave do when it suddenly is no longer a wave?
I don't know what other words I'd use. I'm a science video consumer, not a science video producer. But I've seen them describe most concepts in several different ways. But with quantum? It's "collapse" every time.
@MegaMichelle you can learn physics, but you won’t really understand any more. Most everyone agrees on the math, but what the math means has at least three interpretations.
@MegaMichelle Actually political science might be a better path... reading about it, I mean, not doing it.