Quantum Mechanics
In quantum mechanics, a measurement is an action that determines the location of an object, its momentum, its polarity (if it is a photon), etc. Before a measurement is made, the wavefunction of what is to be measured gives the range of probabilities for the outcomes of measurement, but when a measurement is accomplished that results in what is called the collapse of the wavefunction− at which time there is one definite value rather than a range of possible values. The unambiguous meaning of the measurement problem is an unresolved fundamental problem in quantum mechanics.
Read more about this topic: Measurement, Definitions and Theories
Famous quotes containing the words quantum and/or mechanics:
“But how is one to make a scientist understand that there is something unalterably deranged about differential calculus, quantum theory, or the obscene and so inanely liturgical ordeals of the precession of the equinoxes.”
—Antonin Artaud (1896–1948)
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