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Testing Einstein's 'Spooky Action at a Distance'

Posted by samzenpus on from the this-worked-in-a-different-timeline dept.

smooth wombat writes "Travelling to a time in the past is, as far as we know, not possible. However, Einstein postulated a faster-than-light effect known as 'spooky action at a distance'. The problem is, how do you test for such an effect? That test may now be here. If all goes well, hopefully by September 15th, John Cramer will have experimented with a beam of laser light which has been split in two to test Einstein's idea. While he is only testing the quantum entanglement portion, changing one light beam and having the same change made in the other beam, his experiment might show that a change made in one beam shows up in the other beam before he actually makes the change."

4 of 375 comments (clear)

  1. Very neat and interesting! by Kagura · · Score: 5, Informative

    But we've already done it: Elitzur-Vaidman bomb-testing problem

    At the bottom, it says that the equivalent experiment has already been performed, and TFA sounds like it is nearly the same experiment.

  2. A True Hacker by phantomfive · · Score: 5, Informative

    John Cramer, the designer of the experiment, is really quite a colorful guy. He last got the attention of the press by simulating the sound of the big bang using Mathematica. Useless research of course, but who wouldn't laugh hearing that the big bang sounded like "large jet plane 100 feet off the ground flying over your house in the middle of the night?" At heart this guy is a physics hacker (in the true sense of the word hacker).

    He also writes science fiction, so you can tell he completely enjoys science. Betcha anything he's doing this experiment, not because he thinks it will work, but just 'cause he wants to see what will happen. I can totally agree with that. It's the right reason to do research.
    --
    Looking for a C/C++ job in Silicon Valley?

    --
    Qxe4
  3. Quit it by missing000 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Einstein formulated the theory with 2 colleagues, Podolsky and Rosen.

    It's called the EPR Paradox in the scientific community.

    Einstein was no fan of it, and he believed it was a way to point out how silly the idea of Quantum Mechanics was, but he was very much the discoverer of it.

    This is as important to understanding Einstein as "God does not play at dice", his basic objection to the probability implications of QM and EPR.

  4. Re:Been there, Done that by msevior · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually no. This new experiment is VERY interesting. The new experiment proposed by John G. Cramer aims to test an idea that might allow quantum signaling.

    See this:

    http://www.analogsf.com/0612/altview.shtml

    The idea is to see if an interference pattern will spontaneously change from a single slit to a double slit merely by moving the position of where entangled photons are destroyed.

    I think there is a reasonable chance this will work. This is interesting as it in principle allows FTL communication.

    After that his ideas get REALLY interesting.....