The Science Classroom

Caution: this may be the most random, crazy post so far. Continue at your own risk. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Do you know anything about quantum mechanics? Well, that’s good, because I don’t really either. I once heard a quote by Richard Feynman: “If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don’t understand quantum mechanics” (insert dramatic pause for effect, followed by laughter).  Actually, I know some of the basics of quantum mechanics, but being able to recite something, is a far cry from actually understanding it.

In quantum mechanics, there is an interpretation of the mathematical formulas, which seems to indicate that the observer of anything, affects the object. You can do a little research on Schrödinger’s cat to get a little better understanding. Basically, the way his thought experiment worked, the only way to observe whether the cat is alive or dead, would kill the cat. Now I’ve been thinking about this for a couple of years now and I am just beginning to be able to wrap my brain around it (albeit not very tightly). So if you don’t get it on the first go around, don’t sweat it. Keep thinking about it. If you don’t accept this basic tenet of quantum mechanics, stop reading now, because what follows is based on your acceptance of a theory which has some experimental evidence. To understand that evidence, you’ll need to have a basic understanding of Young’s double-slit experiment.

I know! What’s the point? Right? Actually, I do have one and it goes something like this: if observing the Universe changes the condition of the Universe, how in the world do we know the condition of anything? Most of this thought applies to quantum mechanics, but we could also apply it to, say, a classroom. How many teachers have asked a principal to come observe a particularly rowdy class, only to find when the principal enters the classroom, the students act in a completely different manner? Okay, I know its a stretch, but that’s why they are called analogies.

I’m asking these questions, not because I want you to do some thinking, although that is part of my purpose. I’m asking these questions because I really want to know some answers.  I’m not sure what the answer to the question is. The problem with even asking the questions is that humanity is intrinsically connected to the very thing which they are trying to understand. Its kind of like walking by a mirror and thinking, “That’s not really what I look like! Is it?” Based on Snell’s, you are seeing an exact representation of yourself being reflected back from the mirror. For many of us, we have picture in our heads of what we look like. This is our reality, but once we actually observe our reality, we change it. (I can almost hear the crickets from my vantage point.)

As usual, I always understand things better after I process them through writing. Even though I didn’t talk specifically about quantum entanglement, I think I understand it better than I used to.

Any thoughts? As always, thanks for reading.

Today we had a special speaker in our Pre-AP Physics class, Dr. Flera Rizatdinova (who is originally from Moscow and has a very strong Russian accent, which makes the talk much more interesting) from the Oklahoma State University Dept. of Physics. She is a scientist working on the ATLAS collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider. She shared some of the writing she has been doing for the DOE (which I mistakenly confused with the Dept. of Ed. initially) towards the end of her presentation. She was writing for them about the “benefits of particle physics research” which is a subject that arises frequently in my class. I hear something like “Mr. Bowie, isn’t this just an enormous waste of money?”

Dr. Rizatdinova talked extensively about what the questions the LHC is trying to answer (see previous post). This was the deepest part of the presentation and was probably a little above level of my students (but if I don’t set the bar high, they won’t achieve as much, right?).  At the end, she took some questions which was really good for the students. I’m glad they have some opportunities to interact with college professors/scientists.

There wasn’t really any ground-breaking material in her talk. I have been keeping up with the goings-on of the LHC recently and did some research over the summer with Dr. Rizatdinova, so much of this was a review for me. I’m not sure how the students will react to it, I’ll try to get some feedback tomorrow.  I was simply excited about having a real, live scientist in my classroom and wanted to share the experience!

Does anyone else ever thing about it? By “it” I mean the sheer volume of information that is available through the internet.  Mishelleyb and I were talking today about the librarian coming in to her class to talk to students about using the databases they have in through the R.T. Williams Learning Center, e.g. Ebscohost, FirstSearch, etc. I don’t remember the number she and I talked about, but it was definitely in the 10’s of thousands. How, before Al Gore invented the internet, did we ever get anything accomplished? I remember when I was in college the first time, going into the library and thumbing through journals looking for information. No keywords, no Boolean searches, no nothing, except microfiche and some printed journals. Many of those had to be ordered from other libraries.

It simply boggles my mind: the ease with which we access information. I just can’t wrap my brain around it sometimes. Can you? Do you impress upon your students the amazingness of their lives? The immense amount of information the can access with just a few key strokes? If not, you should.