The word “observed” has largely been conflated with human perception in the layperson’s understanding of quantum mechanics. When they were first experimenting with the dual slit experiment, they were simply trying to make measurements to predict where an electron might end up after entering one of the two slits. However they soon discovered that their measurements changed the behavior of the electron. That behavior has been denoted as an observation however observation is very vague.
It’s better to say “a measurement which causes a wave-function collapse” rather than an observation. When phrased that way, it feels a lot more explicit and it allows lay people like myself to ask the next question “what causes a wave function to collapse?”
Source: I just asked my physics PhD wife about this a couple nights ago and she did her best to explain it to me.
If anyone can explain what exactly causes the wave function to collapse, id appreciate it. Because I can’t understand anything I read online.
Also this meme checks out. A person could observe their CPU with the right conditions and instruments to cause a wave function collapse. But I believe a Qbit can reset its state no?
Say you were a spy, and you think there’s a laser guarding the largest diamond in the world.
There’s no way to detect if the laser is there without putting some form of matter in the way of the laser. Be it a hand, or spray bottle.
Now at the museum, a mist won’t set off the alarm, but you’re still reflecting some of the photons out of the beam and into your eyes. Otherwise you wouldn’t see the beam…
But for a quantum experiment, where we care about each individual photon, spraying a fine mist will affect the experiment. Sticking anything in that laser beam path will affect the measurement.
So how do you make a measurement without interacting? As far as we know, you can’t.
