The Strange World of Quantum PhysicsWhat sort of things would you not accept as a scientific explanation for something? Why not?

- Fairies at the bottom of the garden- Mind-power- Magic- A god- Dreams- Astrology (the way planets are aligned

make a difference to your day)- Energies stored in special crystals- aliens

The basic belief of science is that

everything has a physical cause.

Everything that happens in the world can be explained in a

physical way.

1. Write out what science believes and put a box around it.

2. Give an example of a physical law, and what it could explain eg it really hurts when someone steps on your foot with a stiletoe ....that is because Pressure = Force/ Area

3. Why doesn’t science accept miracles?**Do you believe any non-scientific causes can actually affect the way things happen in the world? Why/ why not?

mass

Gravity x Mass

= weight Pressure =

Force/ Area

Energy cannot be created or destroyed.

Surface

tensionForce(F=ma)

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

acceleration

Which of the following are TRUE, according to science? – something can’t be in two places at

once.– things actually exist: there is a real

world out there– It is impossible to change what happens

just by looking at it.

In fact, all these things are FALSE!

According to quantum physics, the world is NOT what you think it is..it is much stranger…and maybe miracles are possible!

The Strange World of Quantum Physics

Imagine the tiny (quantum) particle is a cat. You put ink on the quantum cat’s paws. You let the quantum cat into the sitting room & you do this several times. You see that half the time, the paw prints show she went to the sofa. And half the time, she went to under the table. Nothing surprising. She likes both equally. You clean up and you start the experiment again. You let the quantum cat in but this time, YOU DON’T LOOK where she is going. Where do you find the paw prints?

There are two tracks of prints. She went to both sofa and chair, at the same time.

So you decide to LOOK. What happens?

Now it goes back to normal…after each time, there is only one track of paw prints, either on the sofa, or on the chair. .

You try one more thing. You put a detector in front of the table, and in front of the sofa. You don’t look. What happens?

BOTH detectors go off, showing the cat went through BOTH, at the same time.

Physics has discovered that tiny particles – the stuff things are made of, behaves in a very strange way.

1. Draw 3 diagrams to show what happens

- normally when you let the quantum cat into the room: where does the cat go?

- when you don’t look. - when you put detectors in front

of the table and sofa, but don’t look. What do they show?

2. Explain what happens when someone tries to see what is happening. How does it change what happens?

**If the world is not “physical” in the way scientists first thought it was – but full of quantum weirdness – does this make it more or less likely that someone like God could influence events easily? Why?

Very very small particles (the stuff everything else is made of) behave very strangely. • They can be everywhere and nowhere at the

same time. They don’t have any definite place they have to be.

• What happens only happens when you look at it. Until you check to see where they are, there is no answer about where they are…

What this means is that there is no “real world” out there, unless it is “being looked at” in some way. Being looked at, makes it happen. (this is called Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, and Copenhagen Indeterminacy)

?

Which of the following are TRUE, according to science? – something can’t be in two places at

once.– things actually exist - there is a real

world out there– It is impossible to change what

happens just by looking at it.

Quantum physics shows that there are NON-PHYSICAL causes: nothing is certain, until a “looker” looks at it. And everything is only a possibility, until it is “looked” at.

Does that make miracles more or less possible?

Could God’s mind be deciding what happens?

Perhaps the Universe only exists because it is in the Mind of God??.

Health Warning!!

Quantum Physics is STILL physics – it only tells us about the physical world.

It CANNOT tell us whether a spiritual being such as God is “looking” at the world to make it real !!