Even the greatest scientists in history can find themselves on the wrong side of
some theories when new physics emerges that challenges the current Paradigm it can often
send ripples of skepticism and uncertainty through the scientific community in the
early 20th century with the emergence of the Quantum World one of the most famous
scientists of the day Albert Einstein had some issues with what was revealed...
The start of the quantum Revolution began in 1900 when Max Planck put forward his theory
that energy existed in individual units or quanta instead of a constant wave of energy
as was the understanding of it at the time over two decades later in the 1920s scientists from
around the world would collaborate to develop the first attempt at a full theory of quantum
mechanics what they uncovered was an entire subatomic world that seemed to ignore many of
the laws of physics used to describe our world and whose Randomness goes against the straightforward
logic tied to Conventional physics one famous aspect of quantum mechanics uncertainty was
built into the framework as the Heisenberg uncertainty principle introduced by Werner
Heisenberg which helps to Define what properties can be known about a particle we cannot know
both the position and speed of a particle at the same time with perfect accuracy is the accuracy
of one measurement increases the uncertainty of the other measurement increases as well
today these uncertainties and others seemingly random Quantum events are much more understood
and are built into the theories that have been rigorously tested over the last century but
during the early years of quantum theory there was a relatively large group of physicists who
were not happy with the explanations that were being put forth the largest of these
voices belonged to Einstein who believed that the Universe could not be governed by laws that
rely on Randomness famously exclaiming God does not plate dice with the universe to which one
of the fathers of quantum mechanics Niels Bohr quickly replied Einstein stop telling God what
to do but in the years in between plank and the development of the first mathematical framework
describing the quantum World by Bohr Heisenberg Schrodinger and others there were a number of
discoveries that aided in the development of this Theory even from Einstein himself
thank you it's a common misconception that Einstein won his Nobel Prize for
his theories of special and general relativity but his only Nobel Prize was actually for his
work on the photoelectric effect in 1905. he was able to explain how electrically charged
particles are released from Material when it absorbs electromagnetic radiation basically if
you shine a light of a certain frequency onto a piece of metal the photons in that beam of light
will knock off electrons from the metal atoms this discovery came just half a decade after
playing first introduced his idea of quantum packets of energy and helped strengthen that
argument by proving that energy in light is composed of individual particles called photons
but even if his work helped further the theory of quantum mechanics he still had a hard time
accepting many of the ideas that started coming forward Einstein's main concern when it came to
the theory of quantum mechanics that was being developed was based around how indeterministic
it was prior to this era of physics theories and laws were based on certainty and determinism in
order for a theory to be accepted it had to demonstrate that it could predict events with
perfect accuracy based on what could be measured but now physicists were expected
to accept a theory that at its core was built off of a variety of Uncertain subatomic events one of
the first features of quantum mechanics to face objection was the idea of quantum superposition
that a particle can be in multiple different states at the same time existing more as a
wave of probabilities than as a physical particle the quantum wave function was introduced by Erwin
Schrodinger in 1926 is a way to represent the possible states of a particle at a given point
in space and time this equation deals with the probabilities that particles will be in
specific States and can be used to determine the chance that a particle will end up in a
distinct state but as soon as that particle is measured to determine the state it's in the wave
function collapses the particles ceases to be a wave and it ends up in a single state
concept can be hard to wrap your head around as it doesn't really sound like reality would behave
this way which is exactly what Einstein thought to try and understand this feature better take
Schrodinger's famous Paradox to explain the superposition of quantum States inside a box
there's a cat and a radioactive material that has a 50 50 probability of Decay which would
cause the cat to die or not to Kang which would mean the cat is still alive while the
box is closed You could argue that the cat is both alive and dead at the same time as
both have the same likelihood of being true so the cat remains in the superposition of
being alive and dead at the same time until someone opens the box opening the box changes
the system in way which forces the cat to be in one State or the other instead of existing
in both simultaneously will not too difficult to understand accepting this is the way the
universe works on a fundamental level was difficult for some and Einstein along with
two other physicists adulsky and Rosen attempted to find a way to disprove this
they proposed the following thought experiment if two Quantum particles become linked together in a
way that can be measured and then separated by a large distance is the property of one particle was
then measured the second particle would have to respond instantly this thought experiment
was implying that either Quantum information can move faster than light or that the states of the
two particles were fixed and the two weren't in a superposition of States until they were measured
they were convinced that there was some variable hidden from the current view on quantum mechanics
in this missing piece the so-called hidden variable would help to eliminate the uncertainty
and Randomness but in a cruel twist of fate Einstein once again unwittingly helped further
the understanding of quantum mechanics his thought experiment was the first to describe another piece
of quantum weirdness that we now call entanglement this feature of quantum mechanics means that two
entangled particles can affect each other across any distance in an instant and yes that means
faster than light speed and was experimentally proven in the early 1970s my physicist John kauser
and Stuart Friedman and to this day Quantum superposition has been proven by a number of
different experiments they've proven this to be a feature of the quantum world and the various
quantum theories are among the most accurate theories we have to explain the universe but even
to this day there's still some scientists that continue to believe what Einstein once did that
something must be missing within this explanation a missing feature of quantum mechanics that would
take away the randomness and uncertainty from the framework some type of hidden variable foreign
didn't like some of the features of quantum mechanics he didn't dismiss the whole theory
he simply thought there was something missing and to this day there are physicists working
to try and uncover these local hidden variables that would allow them to make quantum mechanics
more deterministic in which case they couldn't predict events with accuracy but even with all
the randomness and uncertainty included in the current theory of the subatomic World physicists
have been able to achieve amazing things using the concepts that Einstein hated the quantum
computers in development that can perform operations millions of times faster than
current computers achieve this by utilizing Quantum superposition to create something
called Quantum bits or qubits that can be in many different states at once to replace the classic
binary bit that can only be in one of two the zero and one that we're all familiar with with
in quantum entanglement has been used to develop the emerging technology of quantum teleportation
in which information can be sent instantly across vast distances the mathematical framework that's
been developed to explain quantum mechanics is extremely accurate and well tested so even if
there are hidden variables that will remove some of the weirdness of quantum mechanics
they would most likely fit into the current theory smoothly and add to our understanding
of the universe thanks for watching do you think Einstein's instincts were right and that there's
something missing from quantum mechanics or do you believe that this Randomness is built into
the foundations of the universe let us know in the comments below see you next time on matter