| Online: | |
| Visits: | |
| Stories: |
| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
Both Roads Taken [Uncertain Principles]
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And caused me no small amount of panic
For traveling both of them would be good
But there simply was no way I could
Until I remembered quantum mechanics.So half my wavefunction I sent left
And rightward steered the other half
Both pieces of me with equal heft
And thanks to calculations deft,
I knew the end would sum both pathsPlenty of physicists claim to know
Or at least will confidently speculate
That collapse, or a pilot wave’s flow,
Or decoherence act to make it so.
Me, I just shut up and calculate.So in the woods I went two ways
To return together some distance hence
And through the passing of many days
My branches accumulated differential phase
Which in the end makes interference.
With apologies to the estate of Robert Frost. Credit and/or blame for inspiring this silliness goes to this Stephen Curry tweet.
Source: http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2015/03/09/both-roads-taken/
