WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.480 --> 00:00:05.599 Welcome to the core side Quantum Physics podcast, an exploration 2 00:00:05.679 --> 00:00:10.880 of the fundamental structure of reality, where quantum laws govern matter, energy, 3 00:00:11.199 --> 00:00:16.239 and information. Here, uncertainty is a feature, not a flaw, 4 00:00:16.719 --> 00:00:19.239 and understanding begins at the smallest scales. 5 00:00:27.559 --> 00:00:29.800 If I asked you to say, park your car in 6 00:00:29.800 --> 00:00:32.759 the driveway, but told you that making the car perfectly 7 00:00:32.799 --> 00:00:34.920 still meant you would completely lose track of where you 8 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:37.119 parked it, I mean, you'd probably think I was losing my. 9 00:00:37.159 --> 00:00:39.240 Mind, right, Oh, absolutely, I'd think you were crazy. 10 00:00:39.359 --> 00:00:42.679 Right, But if your car was the size of an electron, 11 00:00:42.920 --> 00:00:46.920 that is the literal inescapable reality you would face. 12 00:00:47.200 --> 00:00:51.679 Yeah, it completely apends our basic intuition. Like we are 13 00:00:51.759 --> 00:00:55.560 conditioned from birth basically to believe that the physical world 14 00:00:55.640 --> 00:00:57.000 is concrete. 15 00:00:56.759 --> 00:00:59.320 Right, like a billiard ball is just sitting there exactly. 16 00:00:59.479 --> 00:01:01.560 We think that, And if we simply look closely enough 17 00:01:01.679 --> 00:01:05.280 or use a sensitive enough instrument, we can ten down 18 00:01:05.400 --> 00:01:08.079 every single detail about an object's state. 19 00:01:08.760 --> 00:01:13.959 But the universe epically has a hard coded speed limit 20 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:19.480 on certainty. Nature fundamentally, at its very core, refuses to 21 00:01:19.560 --> 00:01:20.959 let us know everything all at once. 22 00:01:21.239 --> 00:01:24.560 Yeah, And it's a concept known as the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. 23 00:01:24.239 --> 00:01:25.920 Right, which sounds super academic. 24 00:01:26.040 --> 00:01:29.079 It does, but it's far more than a quirky mathematical footnote. 25 00:01:29.120 --> 00:01:32.640 I mean, this principle is the structural scaffolding of reality. Yeah, 26 00:01:32.680 --> 00:01:35.480 the refusal of the universe to be pinned down is 27 00:01:35.879 --> 00:01:38.000 while it's the only reason solid matter can exist in 28 00:01:38.040 --> 00:01:38.560 the first place. 29 00:01:38.599 --> 00:01:42.040 Okay, let's unpack this because to understand the mechanics of reality, 30 00:01:42.079 --> 00:01:45.319 we have to zoom down to the incredibly tiny scale 31 00:01:45.400 --> 00:01:48.280 of atoms and electrons. I really do, and down there, 32 00:01:48.840 --> 00:01:52.239 reality operates on a strict cosmic trade off between two 33 00:01:52.280 --> 00:01:56.079 specific properties. So the first is position, which is exactly 34 00:01:56.159 --> 00:01:59.079 where our particle is located in space, and the second 35 00:01:59.159 --> 00:02:02.799 is momentum, which is essentially a combination of how fast 36 00:02:02.879 --> 00:02:07.079 that particle is moving, the direction is traveling, and its mass. Aha. 37 00:02:07.439 --> 00:02:10.240 And the paradox that completely breaks my brain is that 38 00:02:10.479 --> 00:02:14.120 knowing one of these properties just entirely destroys your ability 39 00:02:14.159 --> 00:02:14.840 to know the other. 40 00:02:15.039 --> 00:02:15.680 It really does. 41 00:02:16.080 --> 00:02:19.879 If you isolate an electron's exact location, it's momentum becomes 42 00:02:19.919 --> 00:02:22.759 just wildly erratic. You have zero idea how fast it's going. 43 00:02:22.840 --> 00:02:23.919 Yeah, completely lost. 44 00:02:24.240 --> 00:02:28.080 But if you measure its momentum perfectly. Its position blurs 45 00:02:28.080 --> 00:02:31.560 out into this massive range of possibilities. You literally cannot 46 00:02:31.560 --> 00:02:32.120 find it. 47 00:02:32.240 --> 00:02:36.080 Simply stating the rule almost does a disservice to how 48 00:02:36.120 --> 00:02:37.800 bizarre the phenomenon actually is. 49 00:02:37.879 --> 00:02:39.000 Honestly, Oh, for sure. 50 00:02:39.159 --> 00:02:44.000 To really grasp the mechanics of this, this fuzziness, we 51 00:02:44.080 --> 00:02:46.680 need to visualize the trade off. We need to look 52 00:02:46.680 --> 00:02:49.800 at how we try to capture motion in our everyday world. 53 00:02:49.960 --> 00:02:52.680 Yeah, and I always think about trying to photograph a 54 00:02:52.719 --> 00:02:54.599 speeding race car on a dark track. 55 00:02:54.680 --> 00:02:56.400 Oh, that's a great way to picture it, right. 56 00:02:56.639 --> 00:02:59.280 You have a camera and you are forced to make 57 00:02:59.319 --> 00:03:01.960 a choice about your shutter speed. So if you dial 58 00:03:02.000 --> 00:03:05.360 in a super fast shutter speed, the shutter snaps open 59 00:03:05.400 --> 00:03:07.960 and shut in a fraction of a millisecond, freezing the 60 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:11.479 action exactly. You freeze the car perfectly. You get a 61 00:03:11.479 --> 00:03:16.159 crystal clear, razor sharp image of the car's exact position 62 00:03:16.240 --> 00:03:18.039 on the track at that exact moment. 63 00:03:18.120 --> 00:03:20.520 But of course, because the exposure was so brief, there's 64 00:03:20.639 --> 00:03:21.800 zero motion blur. 65 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:24.120 Right, there is no blur at all, So looking at 66 00:03:24.159 --> 00:03:27.000 that frozen frame, you cannot tell if the car was going, 67 00:03:27.120 --> 00:03:28.639 you know, two hundred miles an hour, or if it 68 00:03:28.680 --> 00:03:29.919 was just parked on the track. 69 00:03:29.759 --> 00:03:31.280 You have no context for the speed. 70 00:03:31.520 --> 00:03:35.680 Yeah, you secured perfect position, but you sacrificed all information 71 00:03:35.759 --> 00:03:40.199 about its momentum. And conversely, a slow shutter speed gives 72 00:03:40.199 --> 00:03:42.319 you the motion blur to see the speed, but the 73 00:03:42.360 --> 00:03:44.680 car is just a long streak. Yeah, you don't know 74 00:03:44.719 --> 00:03:47.319 where it actually is at any given microsecond. 75 00:03:47.400 --> 00:03:49.800 What's fascinating here is that the mechanical limit of a 76 00:03:49.840 --> 00:03:52.759 camera is a great starting point, but nature takes the 77 00:03:52.840 --> 00:03:56.919 limitation a massive step further. Oh so, well, in photography, 78 00:03:57.039 --> 00:04:01.520 you could theoretically build a like imagine ratear camera hybrid 79 00:04:01.680 --> 00:04:04.000 to capture both speed and position simultaneously. 80 00:04:04.120 --> 00:04:06.560 Right, yeah, just use better technology exactly. 81 00:04:06.599 --> 00:04:10.520 The limitation is merely technological. But in the quantum realm, 82 00:04:10.840 --> 00:04:13.560 the lack of information isn't a failure of our tools. 83 00:04:13.639 --> 00:04:16.959 Oh wow, Yeah, a quantum particle literally does not possess 84 00:04:16.959 --> 00:04:20.319 a sharply defined location and a sharply defined velocity at 85 00:04:20.319 --> 00:04:23.920 the same time. The information itself just does not simultaneously 86 00:04:23.959 --> 00:04:25.000 exist in the universe. 87 00:04:25.040 --> 00:04:28.079 Wait, if it's not a camera limitation and the particle 88 00:04:28.120 --> 00:04:31.959 is actually physically blurry, what is the universe made of 89 00:04:32.079 --> 00:04:34.519 that allows a physical object to just be a blur. 90 00:04:34.680 --> 00:04:37.040 That's the big question because if I picture an electron, 91 00:04:37.079 --> 00:04:40.319 I picture like a tiny hard billiard ball, and a 92 00:04:40.319 --> 00:04:42.319 billiard ball is always somewhere. 93 00:04:42.040 --> 00:04:45.040 Right, and that intuition the tiny billiard ball is exactly 94 00:04:45.040 --> 00:04:47.160 what we have to discard, cost it out, toss it 95 00:04:47.199 --> 00:04:51.839 completely out. To understand why a particle can be physically blurry, 96 00:04:52.319 --> 00:04:54.560 we have to look at wave particle duality. 97 00:04:54.639 --> 00:04:55.759 Okay, the double life thing. 98 00:04:55.920 --> 00:05:00.480 Yeah, everything at the foundational level of reality, Electrons, photons, quirks, 99 00:05:00.560 --> 00:05:03.720 it all lives a double life. They exhibit properties of 100 00:05:03.759 --> 00:05:08.040 a localized dot, but they also propagate through space like 101 00:05:08.079 --> 00:05:09.160 a spread out ripple. 102 00:05:09.319 --> 00:05:11.360 And this is the wave function, right, Yes. 103 00:05:11.639 --> 00:05:14.279 They're described by a wave function, which is a mathematical 104 00:05:14.279 --> 00:05:17.720 description of probabilities determining where they might interact and how 105 00:05:17.759 --> 00:05:18.160 they move. 106 00:05:18.439 --> 00:05:21.279 Hold on, I'm struggling to picture that. How can a 107 00:05:21.279 --> 00:05:24.720 physical object with mass be a ripple? Are you saying 108 00:05:24.800 --> 00:05:28.480 my physical body is ultimately made up of probability ripples at. 109 00:05:28.319 --> 00:05:31.160 The most fundamental level, Yes, that is nuts. 110 00:05:31.399 --> 00:05:31.759 It is. 111 00:05:32.160 --> 00:05:35.240 Think about an ocean wave rolling toward a beach. Imagine 112 00:05:35.279 --> 00:05:38.920 a series of very long, gentle continuous. 113 00:05:38.279 --> 00:05:40.079 Waves, okay, picturing it. 114 00:05:40.360 --> 00:05:43.000 Because those waves are spread out over a vast distance 115 00:05:43.360 --> 00:05:46.879 with clear repeating peaks and troughs, you can easily measure 116 00:05:46.920 --> 00:05:47.800 their wavelength and. 117 00:05:47.839 --> 00:05:50.000 Speed, so you know exactly what they're doing. 118 00:05:50.160 --> 00:05:53.240 Right. You can calculate the momentum of the wave system beautifully. 119 00:05:53.560 --> 00:05:55.800 But if I ask you to point your finger to 120 00:05:55.920 --> 00:05:59.839 the single exact millimeter where the wave is located, you can't. 121 00:06:00.160 --> 00:06:00.279 Right. 122 00:06:00.480 --> 00:06:02.560 The wave stretches over miles. 123 00:06:02.199 --> 00:06:05.199 Of ocean because the wave isn't an object. It's a 124 00:06:05.240 --> 00:06:08.240 pattern of motion spread out over space exactly. 125 00:06:08.600 --> 00:06:13.000 Now consider the opposite scenario. Imagine dropping a tiny pebble 126 00:06:13.360 --> 00:06:18.399 into a perfectly still pond, creating a single, sharp, vertical splash. 127 00:06:18.519 --> 00:06:21.040 Okay, so just one tiny spike yep, for. 128 00:06:21.040 --> 00:06:23.680 A fraction of a second, you have a very localized 129 00:06:23.759 --> 00:06:26.639 sharp peak. You know the exact position of that disturbance. 130 00:06:26.759 --> 00:06:29.079 But I'm guessing you lose the wave pattern exactly. 131 00:06:29.759 --> 00:06:33.079 If you try to measure the overarching speed or frequency 132 00:06:33.120 --> 00:06:36.160 of that single spike, you run into a mathematical wall. 133 00:06:36.639 --> 00:06:39.439 There are no repeating troughs and peaks to measure. Oh, 134 00:06:39.439 --> 00:06:42.879 I see, the pattern of motion is entirely undefined. Because 135 00:06:42.879 --> 00:06:46.680 the disturbance is restricted to one tiny spot. To get 136 00:06:46.680 --> 00:06:50.480 a perfectly sharp position, nature has to squeeze. 137 00:06:49.959 --> 00:06:51.800 The wave, and squeezing it ruins it. 138 00:06:51.920 --> 00:06:55.439 Yeah, Squeezing the wave destroys the repeating pattern, which inherently 139 00:06:55.480 --> 00:06:56.680 scrambles the momentum. 140 00:06:57.120 --> 00:07:00.240 Does this happen with other types of waves? Because I 141 00:07:00.279 --> 00:07:03.160 feel like I've experienced something similar when messing around with 142 00:07:03.240 --> 00:07:04.480 audio editing software. 143 00:07:04.560 --> 00:07:07.480 Oh. Sound is actually the perfect medium to illustrate the 144 00:07:07.560 --> 00:07:11.720 underlying math. Think about a singer holding a sustained, pure 145 00:07:11.920 --> 00:07:12.839 musical note. 146 00:07:13.040 --> 00:07:16.560 Here's where it gets really interesting. Because a pure musical note, 147 00:07:16.839 --> 00:07:20.079 like say an a vibrating at exactly four hundred and 148 00:07:20.120 --> 00:07:23.519 forty hertz, has an exact frequency, which is our momentum. 149 00:07:23.759 --> 00:07:27.120 Right in our analogy, that frequency represents perfect momentum. Yeah, 150 00:07:27.120 --> 00:07:30.319 But to hear that pure, exact pitch, the singer has 151 00:07:30.360 --> 00:07:31.759 to hold the note over time. 152 00:07:31.839 --> 00:07:33.800 The sound way has to ring out exactly. 153 00:07:33.839 --> 00:07:35.920 It has to ring out so your ear can process 154 00:07:35.959 --> 00:07:40.480 the repeating cycles. If I ask what exact single microsecond 155 00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:43.240 did that note exist, the question itself is just flawed. 156 00:07:43.319 --> 00:07:44.920 It doesn't make sense to ask, right. 157 00:07:45.319 --> 00:07:48.959 A frequency requires a span of time to exist. The time, 158 00:07:49.399 --> 00:07:51.480 or the pefission is spread out. 159 00:07:51.720 --> 00:07:55.839 The pitch is pristine, but the timing is fundamentally decentralized. 160 00:07:55.959 --> 00:07:58.079 But if I want to perfectly define the timing, say 161 00:07:58.120 --> 00:08:01.480 a sharp sudden snare drum click, I know the exact 162 00:08:01.519 --> 00:08:02.879 millisecond that click happened. 163 00:08:02.920 --> 00:08:03.959 You have perfect position. 164 00:08:04.120 --> 00:08:08.079 Yes, perfect position, But a sharp click like that doesn't 165 00:08:08.079 --> 00:08:11.240 have a discernible musical pitch. A sudden burst of sound 166 00:08:11.319 --> 00:08:14.920 is actually a chaotic jumble of thousands of different frequencies 167 00:08:14.920 --> 00:08:15.560 all stacked on. 168 00:08:15.480 --> 00:08:17.360 Top of each other, just massive overlap. 169 00:08:17.519 --> 00:08:20.360 Right, So to get a sharp position in time, nature 170 00:08:20.399 --> 00:08:23.160 has to mix a massive variety of different wavelengths together. 171 00:08:23.720 --> 00:08:28.000 And since wavelength dictates momentum, mixing all those wavelengths together 172 00:08:28.279 --> 00:08:31.639 inherently scrambles the momentum. Y you get a pinpoint location, 173 00:08:32.440 --> 00:08:34.879 but a completely chaotic blurry speed. 174 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:39.000 The audio analogy flawlessly maps to quantum mechanics. What physicists 175 00:08:39.039 --> 00:08:42.320 call a narrow wave packet, which is basically a localized particle, 176 00:08:42.639 --> 00:08:45.120 is constructed by overlapping countless different waves. 177 00:08:45.200 --> 00:08:47.720 So it's like a snare, drume click made of probability. 178 00:08:47.879 --> 00:08:50.240 That's a great way to put it. The mathematics of 179 00:08:50.279 --> 00:08:53.960 waves dictates that you cannot have a single point of 180 00:08:54.039 --> 00:08:58.039 disturbance without adding together an infinite number of different frequencies. 181 00:08:58.360 --> 00:09:01.320 I think a natural human reaction into all this weirdness 182 00:09:01.799 --> 00:09:03.960 is just to assume we're doing the measuring wrong. 183 00:09:04.200 --> 00:09:07.159 Oh, constantly, people always assume that, right. 184 00:09:07.320 --> 00:09:10.120 We think, Okay, an electron is incredibly tiny. If I 185 00:09:10.159 --> 00:09:11.799 try to look at it under a microscope, I have 186 00:09:11.879 --> 00:09:14.320 to bounce light off it, and shooting a photon of 187 00:09:14.399 --> 00:09:17.440 light at an electron is going to physically knock the 188 00:09:17.480 --> 00:09:18.840 electron off course. 189 00:09:18.679 --> 00:09:19.440 Like a collision. 190 00:09:19.639 --> 00:09:21.679 Yeah, it's like trying to figure out where a moth 191 00:09:21.840 --> 00:09:24.120 is in a dark room by throwing tennis balls at it. 192 00:09:24.720 --> 00:09:27.080 You might find them off, but you've completely ruined its 193 00:09:27.080 --> 00:09:28.360 flight patist in the process. 194 00:09:28.639 --> 00:09:31.799 You are describing the observer effect, which is incredibly common. 195 00:09:32.120 --> 00:09:34.720 But it is a massive misconception to equate that with 196 00:09:34.759 --> 00:09:35.879 Heisenberg's principle. 197 00:09:36.039 --> 00:09:37.639 Oh really, so they aren't the same thing. 198 00:09:37.759 --> 00:09:42.080 Not at all. Measurement absolutely disturbs quantum systems, Yes, but 199 00:09:42.200 --> 00:09:46.600 Heisenberg's uncertainty principle is not about clumsy human tools. 200 00:09:46.679 --> 00:09:48.480 It's deeper than that, much deeper. 201 00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:53.240 Even in a purely theoretical universe where we possess a magical, 202 00:09:53.480 --> 00:09:57.320 perfectly gentle, completely non invasive way to measure a particle, 203 00:09:57.879 --> 00:10:01.879 the trade off remains absolute. The uncertainty is woven into 204 00:10:01.960 --> 00:10:05.279 the wave function itself, long before any human being or 205 00:10:05.279 --> 00:10:08.679 instrument enters the room. The universe itself does not know 206 00:10:08.799 --> 00:10:10.559 both values perfectly. 207 00:10:11.039 --> 00:10:13.039 I have to push back here on behalf of anyone 208 00:10:13.120 --> 00:10:14.519 looking out their window right now. 209 00:10:14.399 --> 00:10:15.039 Go for it. 210 00:10:15.120 --> 00:10:17.799 If this is an inescapable rule of nature and the 211 00:10:17.879 --> 00:10:20.720 universe doesn't know where things are, why is my car 212 00:10:20.799 --> 00:10:22.639 a blurry wave of probabilities? 213 00:10:22.759 --> 00:10:24.600 Ah? The macro question, right. 214 00:10:24.639 --> 00:10:26.759 I know exactly where my car is parked, and I 215 00:10:26.799 --> 00:10:29.519 know its speed is exactly zero. It's not smeared out 216 00:10:29.559 --> 00:10:32.759 across my driveway. How can the fundamental building blocks of 217 00:10:32.799 --> 00:10:36.519 reality be blurry but the objects they build are perfectly sharp. 218 00:10:36.720 --> 00:10:39.519 The resolution to that paradox lies in a fundamental limit 219 00:10:39.559 --> 00:10:40.679 called Plank's. 220 00:10:40.279 --> 00:10:41.720 Constant planks constant. 221 00:10:41.879 --> 00:10:44.519 Yeah, you can think of planks constant as the minimum 222 00:10:44.559 --> 00:10:48.360 pixel size of the universe's resolution. It dictates the minimum 223 00:10:48.399 --> 00:10:51.320 amount of fuzziness that must exist when position and momentum 224 00:10:51.360 --> 00:10:52.000 are combined. 225 00:10:52.360 --> 00:10:54.639 And I'm assuming that pixel size is small. 226 00:10:54.919 --> 00:10:59.919 It is unimaginably tiny. In the macroscopic world of cars, baseballs, 227 00:11:00.080 --> 00:11:04.360 and human bodies, the mass of the objects is astronomically 228 00:11:04.440 --> 00:11:07.679 large compared to the quantum scale. Okay, because your car 229 00:11:07.759 --> 00:11:11.559 has so much mass, the corresponding uncertainty and its momentum 230 00:11:11.639 --> 00:11:16.279 translates to a physical blur that is vastly smaller than 231 00:11:16.279 --> 00:11:18.039 the width of a single atom. Wait. 232 00:11:17.919 --> 00:11:19.919 Wait, so the car actually is blurry. My eyes just 233 00:11:19.919 --> 00:11:21.039 can't resolve the pixels. 234 00:11:21.240 --> 00:11:24.799 Yes, the fuzziness is there, but for all practical human 235 00:11:24.799 --> 00:11:27.000 purposes it is totally irrelevant. 236 00:11:27.320 --> 00:11:28.000 That is wild. 237 00:11:28.279 --> 00:11:30.960 It is only when you shrink down to the microscopic scale, 238 00:11:31.000 --> 00:11:33.799 when you look at a single electron whose mass is 239 00:11:33.840 --> 00:11:37.240 almost nothing, that this tiny amount of built in fuzziness 240 00:11:37.279 --> 00:11:40.840 suddenly dominates the entire system. It takes over exactly at 241 00:11:40.840 --> 00:11:43.600 the atomic scale. The pixel size is larger than the 242 00:11:43.600 --> 00:11:44.440 object itself. 243 00:11:44.720 --> 00:11:48.240 Realizing that the foundation's reality is fundamentally pixelated and fuzzy 244 00:11:48.360 --> 00:11:50.879 couldn't have gone over well with classical physicists. I mean 245 00:11:50.879 --> 00:11:52.320 they like things need. 246 00:11:52.200 --> 00:11:56.080 Oh it triggered an intellectual earthquake. We have to step 247 00:11:56.120 --> 00:11:59.799 back to the year in nineteen twenty seven, Werner Heisenberg 248 00:11:59.879 --> 00:12:03.480 was working alongside giants like Nils Bohr and Erwin Schrdinger. 249 00:12:03.600 --> 00:12:04.440 Yeah, heavy hitters. 250 00:12:04.679 --> 00:12:08.720 The biggest and up until that moment, the prevailing belief 251 00:12:08.720 --> 00:12:11.519 in science was Newtonian determinism. 252 00:12:11.879 --> 00:12:13.840 Basically, the universe as a machine. 253 00:12:13.960 --> 00:12:17.759 Yes, the universe was viewed as an incredibly complex, perfectly 254 00:12:17.840 --> 00:12:21.759 precise clock. The core assumption was that if a supremely 255 00:12:21.799 --> 00:12:25.720 intelligent being knew the exact position and the exact velocity 256 00:12:25.799 --> 00:12:28.639 of every single atom in the universe right now, they 257 00:12:28.639 --> 00:12:32.360 could plug those numbers into Newton's equations and perfectly calculate 258 00:12:32.399 --> 00:12:34.000 the entire future of the cosmos. 259 00:12:34.440 --> 00:12:37.200 Wait, if the universe is just a clockwork machine of 260 00:12:37.240 --> 00:12:39.919 cause and effect, If the starting position of every atom 261 00:12:39.960 --> 00:12:42.559 perfectly determines where it will bounce next, that implies a 262 00:12:42.600 --> 00:12:43.840 completely determined. 263 00:12:43.440 --> 00:12:44.639 Destiny, a set path. 264 00:12:44.720 --> 00:12:46.639 Yeah, that would mean every thought I have and every 265 00:12:46.639 --> 00:12:49.159 action I take was mathematically predetermined by the state of 266 00:12:49.200 --> 00:12:52.159 the universe billions of years ago. Exactly That effectively kills 267 00:12:52.200 --> 00:12:53.240 the concept of free will. 268 00:12:53.480 --> 00:12:57.919 The philosophical implications of a clockwork universe are deeply unsettling, 269 00:12:58.639 --> 00:13:04.000 but Heisenberg's uncertain principle proved that a clockwork universe is mathematically. 270 00:13:03.360 --> 00:13:04.919 Impossible because of the blur. 271 00:13:05.080 --> 00:13:08.600 Because of the blur, because you cannot know the exact 272 00:13:08.679 --> 00:13:12.200 position and velocity of even one single particle, a little 273 00:13:12.200 --> 00:13:15.440 in all of them, the future is fundamentally open. Wow, 274 00:13:15.720 --> 00:13:19.440 there is an irreducible randomness, a core in determinacy at 275 00:13:19.480 --> 00:13:23.600 the foundation of reality. The universe cannot perfectly predict its 276 00:13:23.639 --> 00:13:24.279 own future. 277 00:13:24.600 --> 00:13:27.039 So what does this all mean for reality itself? 278 00:13:27.080 --> 00:13:27.159 Like? 279 00:13:27.200 --> 00:13:29.159 Wait, does this mean the universe itself doesn't even know 280 00:13:29.200 --> 00:13:32.679 what it's doing? Next? Is reality not fully real until 281 00:13:32.679 --> 00:13:35.039 we look at it? Are we just walking around in 282 00:13:35.080 --> 00:13:37.480 a cloud of unrevolved probabilities? 283 00:13:37.600 --> 00:13:40.159 This raises an important question, and it is the exact 284 00:13:40.200 --> 00:13:44.000 dilemma that fractured the physics community into different philosophical camps. 285 00:13:44.360 --> 00:13:47.600 How does reality resolve the blur? Heisenbergen bor developed what 286 00:13:47.639 --> 00:13:50.840 is known as the Copenhagen interpretation. They argue that these 287 00:13:50.919 --> 00:13:54.360 properties literally do not possess concrete values until an interaction 288 00:13:54.440 --> 00:13:55.639 or measurement forces them to. 289 00:13:55.840 --> 00:13:57.000 Okay, so before that. 290 00:13:57.120 --> 00:14:00.840 The electron exists purely as a smeared up probability cloud, 291 00:14:01.279 --> 00:14:03.639 But the moment it hits a detector, The universe essentially 292 00:14:03.679 --> 00:14:06.759 rolls the dice, and the cloud instantly collapses into a 293 00:14:06.799 --> 00:14:08.080 definite location. 294 00:14:07.960 --> 00:14:11.200 That implies the active measurement forces the universe to make 295 00:14:11.200 --> 00:14:15.120 a decision. The probability suddenly snaps into reality. 296 00:14:15.399 --> 00:14:19.440 Yeah, and many physicists, including Einstein, hated the idea of 297 00:14:19.480 --> 00:14:20.759 the universe playing dice. 298 00:14:21.080 --> 00:14:22.600 I mean, I kind of get why. 299 00:14:22.440 --> 00:14:26.320 It's unsettling, so they explored alternative frameworks to handle the blur. 300 00:14:26.759 --> 00:14:29.799 One of the most fascinating is the many world interpretation. 301 00:14:30.080 --> 00:14:32.759 Oh, I've heard of this. The multiverse stuff exactly. 302 00:14:33.440 --> 00:14:37.480 Many worlds argues that the wave function never actually collapses. Instead, 303 00:14:37.840 --> 00:14:41.440 when a fuzzy, uncertain electron interacts with a detector, the 304 00:14:41.480 --> 00:14:44.639 electron doesn't choose just one location, It chooses all of them. 305 00:14:44.759 --> 00:14:48.919 It occupies every possible location. But to accommodate that, reality 306 00:14:48.919 --> 00:14:53.440 itself fractures. The universe splits into multiple branching timelines, one 307 00:14:53.559 --> 00:14:56.480 universe for every possible position the electron could have taken. 308 00:14:56.720 --> 00:14:59.919 So in many worlds, the uncertainty is just an illusion 309 00:15:00.320 --> 00:15:04.080 based on our limited perspective. The electron has a definite position, 310 00:15:04.320 --> 00:15:06.159 but we only get to see the timeline where it 311 00:15:06.240 --> 00:15:09.080 landed in spot A, while another version of us sees 312 00:15:09.120 --> 00:15:09.799 it in spot B. 313 00:15:10.159 --> 00:15:14.039 Exactly. The mechanics of how reality handles the paradox very 314 00:15:14.080 --> 00:15:17.960 wildly depending on the interpretation. But the crucial takeaway for 315 00:15:18.039 --> 00:15:21.000 you listening right now is that, regardless of whether you 316 00:15:21.039 --> 00:15:26.679 prefer collapsing probability clouds or branching multiverses, the Heisenberg uncertainty 317 00:15:26.720 --> 00:15:31.159 relation itself remains an experimentally confirmed bedrock fact. 318 00:15:31.279 --> 00:15:32.120 The blur is real. 319 00:15:32.200 --> 00:15:34.960 The physical trade off is absolutely real. No matter what 320 00:15:35.159 --> 00:15:38.440 underlying story you tell to explain the philosophy. 321 00:15:37.879 --> 00:15:40.639 As mine bending as the philosophy is, I always look 322 00:15:40.679 --> 00:15:45.039 for the tangible application. Does this quantum fuzziness actually dictate 323 00:15:45.159 --> 00:15:47.200 our physical, everyday existence? 324 00:15:47.279 --> 00:15:49.279 Oh, it is the sole reason you exist in the 325 00:15:49.279 --> 00:15:52.159 physical form you do right now? Wait, really, truly to 326 00:15:52.159 --> 00:15:53.840 see the physical impact, we just have to look at 327 00:15:53.840 --> 00:15:56.360 the stability of an atom. How do you normally picture 328 00:15:56.399 --> 00:15:57.440 the structure. 329 00:15:56.960 --> 00:15:59.879 Of an atom like a miniture solar system. Usually the 330 00:16:00.080 --> 00:16:02.279 heavy nucleus is the Sun in the center, and the 331 00:16:02.360 --> 00:16:04.720 tiny electrons are the planets orbiting around it. 332 00:16:04.919 --> 00:16:08.919 Right, the classic textbook drawing that classical model is physically 333 00:16:08.919 --> 00:16:12.879 impossible without quantum mechanics. Why if an electron or a 334 00:16:12.960 --> 00:16:18.559 tiny classical planet orbiting a positively charged nucleus, electromagnetic theory 335 00:16:18.600 --> 00:16:22.720 dictates it would constantly radiate energy, it would quickly lose 336 00:16:22.759 --> 00:16:26.320 speed and spiral incredibly fast right into the center, collapsing 337 00:16:26.360 --> 00:16:27.279 the atom entirely. 338 00:16:27.559 --> 00:16:31.200 Wait, so if an electron spiral perfectly into the tiny 339 00:16:31.200 --> 00:16:33.679 point of the nucleus and just sat there at the center, 340 00:16:34.039 --> 00:16:37.879 it would have an exact microscopic position exactly and because 341 00:16:37.879 --> 00:16:40.879 it's stopped at the center, its momentum would be exactly zero, 342 00:16:41.279 --> 00:16:43.679 which Heisenberg's principle absolutely forbids. 343 00:16:43.799 --> 00:16:45.759 The puzzle pieces are snapping together, oh. 344 00:16:45.639 --> 00:16:50.120 My gosh, because nature refuses to let the electron occupy 345 00:16:50.159 --> 00:16:54.440 that tiny exact space, trying to squeeze the electrons position 346 00:16:55.120 --> 00:16:58.480 forces its momentum to become wildly uncertain. The closer it 347 00:16:58.519 --> 00:17:02.279 gets to the nucleus, the more its momentum spikes, violently 348 00:17:02.320 --> 00:17:05.240 pushing it back out. So the solid structure of our 349 00:17:05.279 --> 00:17:08.920 bodies is literally held up by the fact that electrons 350 00:17:08.960 --> 00:17:10.759 physically refuse to be pinned down. 351 00:17:11.000 --> 00:17:13.279 If we connect this to the bigger picture, you have 352 00:17:13.400 --> 00:17:17.240 just described the mechanism of the physical universe that is incredible. 353 00:17:17.359 --> 00:17:20.680 It really is. The refusal to be certain provides the 354 00:17:20.720 --> 00:17:24.319 outward pressure that keeps atoms plump and stable. It is 355 00:17:24.359 --> 00:17:27.960 the invisible force keeping all matter from collapsing in on itself. 356 00:17:28.640 --> 00:17:32.200 And understanding that inherent fuzziness is the only way we 357 00:17:32.240 --> 00:17:35.400 have been able to build the modern technological. 358 00:17:34.640 --> 00:17:37.480 World, well, it limits what we can build. Yeah, right, 359 00:17:38.000 --> 00:17:40.400 because if engineers are trying to make computer chips smaller 360 00:17:40.400 --> 00:17:43.559 and faster, they eventually hit the pixel size of the universe. 361 00:17:43.680 --> 00:17:46.559 They do, and the modern semiconductor industry fights a daily 362 00:17:46.599 --> 00:17:50.839 war against Heisenberg's principle I bit inside your computer. Billions 363 00:17:50.839 --> 00:17:55.160 of microscopic transistors act as gates, trapping or releasing electrons 364 00:17:55.200 --> 00:17:58.960 to process information. For decades, engineers have been shrinking these 365 00:17:59.000 --> 00:18:00.480 gates to make computers faster. 366 00:18:00.640 --> 00:18:01.400 But there's a limit. 367 00:18:01.759 --> 00:18:06.359 Exactly as the gates become impossibly small, the physical space 368 00:18:06.400 --> 00:18:09.440 and electron is allowed to occupy becomes highly constricted. 369 00:18:09.599 --> 00:18:11.319 You're tightened the grip on its position. 370 00:18:11.440 --> 00:18:15.160 And as the position becomes highly restricted, the electron's momentum 371 00:18:15.200 --> 00:18:19.359 becomes wildly uncertain. It gains so much uncertain energy that 372 00:18:19.440 --> 00:18:22.759 it literally breaches the physical walls of the transistor. 373 00:18:22.880 --> 00:18:24.079 It just phases through. 374 00:18:24.359 --> 00:18:28.440 It performs what we call quantum tunneling. It teleports across 375 00:18:28.480 --> 00:18:31.559 the barrier simply because its wave function became too squeezed. 376 00:18:32.400 --> 00:18:36.680 Our entire digital infrastructure relies on engineers mathematically predicting and 377 00:18:36.799 --> 00:18:38.720 managing this fundamental blur. 378 00:18:39.079 --> 00:18:41.599 We've gone from trying to photograph race cars in the 379 00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:44.759 dark to mixing sound waves to build a physical object. 380 00:18:44.839 --> 00:18:46.200 It's quite a journey, it is. 381 00:18:46.440 --> 00:18:48.920 We learned that the universe has a fundamental pixel size 382 00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:52.799 that killed the idea of a predictable clockwork reality. And 383 00:18:53.119 --> 00:18:56.519 to top it off, this exact quantum fuzziness is the 384 00:18:56.559 --> 00:19:00.599 inward pressure keeping our atoms from imploding while sign ultaneously 385 00:19:00.640 --> 00:19:03.480 causing headaches for the engineers trying to build faster cell phones. 386 00:19:03.559 --> 00:19:04.960 The universe is funny that way. 387 00:19:05.200 --> 00:19:08.880 It keeps our universe wonderfully unpredictable and perfectly solid at 388 00:19:08.880 --> 00:19:09.920 the exact same time. 389 00:19:10.240 --> 00:19:13.359 The depth of the principle is truly staggering, and you know, 390 00:19:13.440 --> 00:19:16.720 it leaves us with a final, broader concept to mull over. 391 00:19:17.279 --> 00:19:17.559 What's that? 392 00:19:18.519 --> 00:19:21.920 The uncertainty principle, at its core is a beautiful lesson 393 00:19:21.960 --> 00:19:25.480 in humility from nature. It proves mathematically that the more 394 00:19:25.480 --> 00:19:29.200 aggressively we try to isolate and control one specific aspect 395 00:19:29.240 --> 00:19:32.720 of a complex system, the more a complementary aspect slips 396 00:19:32.880 --> 00:19:35.559 entirely out of our grasp. Oh wow, yeah, I think 397 00:19:35.599 --> 00:19:38.279 that invites us to look beyond physics. In our pursuit 398 00:19:38.319 --> 00:19:41.559 of knowledge, we often operate under the assumption that absolute 399 00:19:41.839 --> 00:19:45.880 microscopic precision is the ultimate goal. But perhaps the deepest 400 00:19:45.920 --> 00:19:48.440 truths don't emerge from achieving perfect control. 401 00:19:48.519 --> 00:19:50.119