I started researching a bit about quantum mechanics and discovered a lot of cool things, most of which prove everything we believe to be false and seriously makes me question what I've learned for the past years in school. Regardless, I started thinking about some theories quantum mechanics covers and how we can similarly apply them to our world. Most of the applications of these theories are on a minute level, but I'll be sharing something you might find a bit interesting toward the end.
Before we get my idea, you need to know the concept behind size. Right now, you consider size to be relative; ex. your phone is tiny compared to Mt. Rushmore, but your phone is huge compared to an ant.
However, Dirac was a physicist who came up with an absolute definition of size, aka some objects will always be big, and others will always be small. He said that if you can observe an object without disturbing it (a negligible disturbance), then the object is big. If you must make a nonnegligible disturbance, aka alter it somehow, to observe it, then the object is small.
You're probably thinking that this is kind of weird...I mean, can't we observe everything without disturbing it? Well, you'd be right in the sense of classical mechanics. We can measure things like rocks, watch birds fly, and drool over food without disturbing them. In fact, everything in classical mechanics can be big with this definition.
However, we can't really observe things like the movements of photons, because simply looking at what they're doing actually forces their wavefunctions to collapse (basically, photons act differently when we watch them and when we don't...cool, right?!). This concept of being small applies for objects at the quantum level, which sets up the difference between quantum and classical mechanics.
With this floating around in my head, I was walking around and caught my sister playing video games. I started to wonder if what she was doing was actually important, then realized that importance is also usually relative. Maybe that video game was important to her because it gave her a break, but I might think she was being counterproductive.
Is there a way to make importance absolute?
Here's my idea: If something makes a negligible disturbance in your life, then it's not important. If something makes a nonnegligible (aka significant) disturbance on your life, then it is important.
This might sound like the way you already define if something is important or not. But think about it-this is absolute. Now no one can tell you that playing video games is not important if you can prove the game makes a nonnegligible disturbance on your life.
I know this a bit of a deviation from my usual posts, but I hope you enjoyed it! Are there any other abstract ideas you consider to be relative, but can find an absolute definition for? Did you have fun reading this post? Tell me below!
For similar posts, check out my properties of happiness molecules or diffusing the tension posts :)
Before we get my idea, you need to know the concept behind size. Right now, you consider size to be relative; ex. your phone is tiny compared to Mt. Rushmore, but your phone is huge compared to an ant.
However, Dirac was a physicist who came up with an absolute definition of size, aka some objects will always be big, and others will always be small. He said that if you can observe an object without disturbing it (a negligible disturbance), then the object is big. If you must make a nonnegligible disturbance, aka alter it somehow, to observe it, then the object is small.
You're probably thinking that this is kind of weird...I mean, can't we observe everything without disturbing it? Well, you'd be right in the sense of classical mechanics. We can measure things like rocks, watch birds fly, and drool over food without disturbing them. In fact, everything in classical mechanics can be big with this definition.
However, we can't really observe things like the movements of photons, because simply looking at what they're doing actually forces their wavefunctions to collapse (basically, photons act differently when we watch them and when we don't...cool, right?!). This concept of being small applies for objects at the quantum level, which sets up the difference between quantum and classical mechanics.
With this floating around in my head, I was walking around and caught my sister playing video games. I started to wonder if what she was doing was actually important, then realized that importance is also usually relative. Maybe that video game was important to her because it gave her a break, but I might think she was being counterproductive.
Is there a way to make importance absolute?
Here's my idea: If something makes a negligible disturbance in your life, then it's not important. If something makes a nonnegligible (aka significant) disturbance on your life, then it is important.
This might sound like the way you already define if something is important or not. But think about it-this is absolute. Now no one can tell you that playing video games is not important if you can prove the game makes a nonnegligible disturbance on your life.
I know this a bit of a deviation from my usual posts, but I hope you enjoyed it! Are there any other abstract ideas you consider to be relative, but can find an absolute definition for? Did you have fun reading this post? Tell me below!
For similar posts, check out my properties of happiness molecules or diffusing the tension posts :)
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