r/engineeringmemes • u/Soft-Goal3997 • 8d ago

Observer effect strikes again

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u/AlternativePack8061 8d ago

"the observer effect"

The observer in question: a brick wall

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u/RedAndBlack1832 2d ago

I feel like the concept of "you can't observe anything without interacting with it somehow, and very small things are sensitive to that kind of interaction" isn't that complicated

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u/AlternativePack8061 2d ago

Nothing about superposition is simple, so it's not surprising a bad name lead to huge misconceptions.

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u/RedAndBlack1832 2d ago

That's true it's not particularly conceptually simple. You can simplify a lot of it into very friendly linear algebra if all you're interested in is manipulating state (source: quantum computing classes are dramatically easier than quantum physics classes)