Class #16 (Feb. 28) Reading Questions - The Fabric of the Cosmos

Chapter 4

1. Explain what happens when you shine light through two narrow slits. How does this experiment show that light is a wave?

2. What is meant by the collapse of the wavefunction and how does this concept force us to redefine what we mean by making a measurement?

3. What was the Einstein, Rosen, and Podalsky (EPR) picture of "reality" and how did their famous thought experiment supposedly "prove" that quantum mechanics is an incomplete theory?

4. In 1964 John Bell showed that it is, in principle, possible to test the EPR picture of "reality". What is the idea behind Bell's test and what was actually found in 1982 when Alain Aspect carried out this type of experiment?

5. What is quantum entanglement?

Chapter 5

6. According to Einstein, "the distinction between past, present, and future is only an illusion". What did Einstein mean by this and how does the Chewie example help to visualize this concept.

Your Question: Please give a well formulated question that you have regarding the material covered in this reading assignment.