Jan 17, 2016
New Quantum Record: Ball of Atoms Ends up in Two Spots at Once
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: computing, particle physics, quantum physics
Researchers have demonstrated the effects of superposition on the scale of everyday objects.
Of the weird implications of quantum mechanics, superposition may be the hardest for humans to wrap their minds around. In principle, superposition means that the same object can exist in more than one place at the same time.
Ordinarily, superposition is only relevant on the microscopic scale of subatomic particles. Effects on this scale are the key to some possibly groundbreaking technologies, like quantum computing. No one has ever demonstrated quantum effects on the scale of Schrödinger’s cat –the mythical unobserved cat in a box that is both alive and dead at the same time.