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Bounding the speed of ‘spooky action at a distance’

arxiv.org

1–10 of 55 posts

Re: Bounding the speed of ‘spooky action at a distance’

#5
post #4

I sent this to my friend who has a phd in physics and is a post-doc at Cambridge and he said it's bogus.

Then he didn't understand what you were asking. It can easily be faster than the speed of light because no information can be transmitted through this phenomenon.

Re: Bounding the speed of ‘spooky action at a distance’

#6
post #4

I sent this to my friend who has a phd in physics and is a post-doc at Cambridge and he said it's bogus.

Then he didn't understand what you were asking. It can easily be faster than the speed of light because no information can be transmitted through this phenomenon.

Whoah you're jumping to a strange conclusion here. How do you know he didn't actually look at the paper and respond based on the contents rather than first thing that happened to pop into your mind?

Re: Bounding the speed of ‘spooky action at a distance’

#7
post #4

I sent this to my friend who has a phd in physics and is a post-doc at Cambridge and he said it's bogus.

Then he didn't understand what you were asking. It can easily be faster than the speed of light because no information can be transmitted through this phenomenon.

> Then he didn't understand what you were asking. It can easily be faster than the speed of light because no information can be transmitted through this phenomenon.

If its observable then how could information not be transmitted?

I'm the furthest thing from a physicist but if quantum entanglement causes an atoms polarity to change because millions of miles away another atom it is entangled with did the same, that would seem like an excellent way to encode information into bits, supposing you can change the atoms polarity at a whim.

Re: Bounding the speed of ‘spooky action at a distance’

#8
post #4

I sent this to my friend who has a phd in physics and is a post-doc at Cambridge and he said it's bogus.

Then he didn't understand what you were asking. It can easily be faster than the speed of light because no information can be transmitted through this phenomenon.

If no information or energy is transmitted, then what exactly is traveling faster than the speed of light?

Nothing.

It's just as if you and a distant friend pre-agree to lift a flag at 1200 GST. The "flag-raising interaction" is instant, "travelling" faster than the speed of light, but really nothing is travelling faster than the speed of light. You and your friend just pre-agreed to do something at the same time in different locations.

Re: Bounding the speed of ‘spooky action at a distance’

#9
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then he didn't understand what you were asking. It can easily be faster than the speed of light because no information can be transmitted through this phenomenon.

> Then he didn't understand what you were asking. It can easily be faster than the speed of light because no information can be transmitted through this phenomenon. If its observable then how could information not be transmitted? I'm the furthest thing from a physicist but if quantum entanglement causes an atoms polarity to change because millions of miles away another atom it is entangled with did the same, that wou…

Because just observing the polarity changes it, so you can never be sure what position it was in originally. So you can affect an object that is light years away from you instantly, but it's useless for transmitting information, because while you know which state it is in, the party on the other end does not,and has no way of finding out without affecting the information and making it useless.

Re: Bounding the speed of ‘spooky action at a distance’

#10
Suppose you and a distant friend both agree to wave a flag at 1200 GST.

To an alien observing Earth, it looks as if the "human flag-raising interaction" is an instant effect that "travels" faster than the speed of light, since the flag raising happens at the same time in two places.

But really, nothing is travelling. You and your friend just pre-agreed to do something at the same time at different places.

If energy or information is not transmitted, then what is? I'd argue nothing.

(-A physicist)

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