Comments on: The Biggest “Spooky” System Ever Seen: 4 Entangled Ions

By: brotim

brotim — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 15:06:42 +0000

Actually, we are communicating at slightly less than light speed here on the Internet. The electrons are slowed over the wires/fibers by resistance and the radio waves only travel at light speed. So, though it may seem instantaneous, it really isn’t…

By: Avalons Child

Avalons Child — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 02:39:29 +0000

Seems to me that the particles are communicating on the cosmic internet, indiscernable and undectable by us, not for lack of technolgy but for lack of comprehension that it may be such. Yet we communicate wirelessly and instantly every day. How fascinating, what processess facilates their instant communication…….can we detect the same and to what end are the applications……and what is the source/intention…..?? Satyameva Jayate

By: brotim

brotim — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 06:07:52 +0000

Thank you for the answer!

I s’pose what I’m really thinking about is entangling two areas of space/time as opposed to two bits of matter in different spaces, if that makes sense…

The gist I get from the article is that more can be entangled than we thought. I’m just thinking about what might happen if the space/time itself were entangled and not just the matter. Ergo, a certain configuration of matter exits a portion of space/time that is entangled with another portion of space/time. Since matter is exiting the one, would identical (but different) matter exit the other?

Again, thanks!

By: nosavynada

nosavynada — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 22:49:35 +0000

My conversions may be off but… would not the equation actually yield 1.25 billion MM not M? and if so it eventually comes to around 770 miles I would think – still very impressive but not the interstellar distances talked about. All-in-All still very impressive and thank you never the less for the example it helps to get a grasp on this.

By: honeybee

honeybee — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 07:11:08 +0000

Voodoo dolls!?

By: broan

broan — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 19:07:17 +0000

@brotim.

No. If you pushed one open though, the other one would be affected in some way. I think it depends on what you entangle. And an entanglement is easy to disrupt apparently.

By: brotim

brotim — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 01:33:34 +0000

So, if you build two doorways and sync them by entanglement, when you walk through one, would a copy of you exit the other?

By: Russ

Russ — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:17:57 +0000

The very theory and concept behind entanglement precludes communication. It just causes the results of random events separated by a distance to jive when later compared.

By: Dr.What

Dr.What — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 16:06:03 +0000

Does this remind anyone of the ansible from the Ender saga?

By: Patimus

Patimus — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 13:41:01 +0000

Thanks for the excellent analogy, I see the scale more clearly, yet, while I understand the idea of instant communication through quantum entanglement, it seems at a distance of a quarter of a millimeter sound travel would seem instantaneous. I’d like to see the machine they use to record such an event. Preciiiiiise!

By: Jumblepudding

Jumblepudding — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 13:24:44 +0000

Thanks for the analogy. My mind be blown.

By: MarkD

MarkD — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 07:53:22 +0000

Wow this is HUGE.
If they can stay entangled at a distance, that’s faster than light communication on a continuous basis with a molecule that is actually big enough to be easily looked at. I hope the “looking at it” doesn’t mess it up though.

Simple version:
If they get this working and stable, you have an object that does the same thing as another object anywhere, instantly. Faster than light communication.

So what is the current consensus on entangled particles? Do they thing that they are sharing the same “String” as far as string theory and tied together through an invisible hidden dimension?

By: chris

chris — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 04:37:08 +0000

Why did they use Ions instead of magnetically nuetral particles?

By: Nick

Nick — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 03:07:12 +0000

A quarter of a milimeter is 250 micrometers. 1000 nanometers is in a micrometer. That’s 250,000 nanometers. An angstrom is 1/10th of a nanometer. Most atoms in a solid are on the order of Angstrom or sub-angstrom sizes. DNA is 2 nanometers wide.

These ions are communicating as if they were side by side while 2,500,000 times farther apart than they would normally be when touching.

2.5 million times further apart.

By analogy, lets say you have two kids, both 1 meter tall. 1 meter x 1000 mm x 1000 um x 1000 nm x 10A / 2A(mm= millimeter um = micrometer nm= nanometer A=angstroms, and we’ll take 2A as the average ) That is 5 billion times larger than an atom. So, take that .25 MM x 5 billion, and that’s how many meters away you’d need to have your two children to imagine the distance between these two ions.

About 1.25 billion meters. 1.25 million kilometers. It’s about 4 times the distance from Earth to the Moon.

In other words, at the scale their working at, unimaginably huge.

You can’t be separated in space but not time, at least not with any known techniques except quantum entaglement – which seems to separate objects in space, but not time, which allows for instantaneous communications.

Einstein called it “spukhafte,” and it is, because it contradicts everything we know about the limitations of physics in this universe. This is the first time entanglement has been demonstrated on anything as large as an atom, let alone two. From a quantum-mechanical standpoint, this is break-through amazing. It’s shown that entanglement can work on objects larger than quanta. Now that we’ve done atoms, we can work our way up. Who knows what sort of implications this could have. Imagine two entangled doorways. We now know this is technically achievable, the only question is how much money we are willing to throw at it to accomplish it sooner rather than later.

I tell you whut, the future’s gonna be crazy.

By: Jumblepudding

Jumblepudding — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 21:52:28 +0000

A quarter of a millimeter is a gigantic distance when we’re talking about atoms. It almost seems like it needs an analogy in terms of visible objects. is this like two ships on opposite sides of the atlantic vibrating in tandem, two people on the top and bottom floors of a the empire state building, or what?