Quantum Effects, those sneaky devils

I admit it, I don't really understand quantum effects very well. I do know there's something crazy going on here, though, and it's worth reflecting on.

I know this much, it goes back to de Broglie. Particles have wavelengths. At least that's what he said. It's a very small wavelength, smaller than a nucleus, but it's there. So, as the waves as concentrated in this small unit of space, it's a particle... but is a particle made of waves? Or are these the wrong kind of terms to try to think of it.

Our professor told us that as technological capabilities get on a tiny scale, we're starting to experience some strange things. On a scale smaller than an atom, it turns out sometimes electrons get entangled, which means they behave the same way over far distances, I think? Or, the outcome of certain experiments on them is determined by the way you set up the experiment.

I guess this is a revolution against the Newtonian universe, right? Where things behave in predicatable ways? We've got hidden variables, maybe, or many worlds, even. Or just statistics? I don't know. It's unsettling, all the ideas about dead cats in boxes. Absurd.

Is it ok for me to say I don't "believe" it? There must be something more to all of this, something clean and straightforward to explain it all. Simple laws, right? Maybe that's wishful thinking...

Global Warming: Maybe Al Gore isn't so crazy after all

One of the biggest impacts this class has made on me is in what we have learned about global warming. When I came into the class in September, I actually wasn't sure whether or not it was real. I mean, there are dissenting voices. They say that people who believe in global warming are a cult, an environmentalist, pantheistic religion, all out to take your rights to use your property as you see fit. I wasn't decided or not, though. I felt I didn't have the scientific understanding to weigh though all the evidence.

It turns out the evidence is very basic. It isn't confusing at all, when presented on a simple level. Ozone is being depleted, especially in areas near the poles, and ozone depletion leads to global warming. Some people say that the earth is warming for other reasons, and there may also be other contributing factors, but that doesn't discredit the fact that the chemicals we are releasing into the atmosphere by our human action is removing oxygen from the cycle which cannot be returned.

I didn't understand any of this. Yet, as a result of the oxygen leaving the cycle up there in the ozone (which is so thin already! just a cm), people will get more skin cancer, and special micro-organisms like plankton will die. Plants, too, are being damaged.

Here's some more that I learned. We actually know what the greenhouse gasses are. It isn't helter-skelter in vague theories. They're CO2, methane, and CH4. All of these trap the infrared light from the sun. It's called the greenhouse effect because infrared light comes in, and these gasses keep the heat from that light trapped in our atmosphere. We're like a parked car in the sun.

Now look at this, what we learned in class--
In the US, if we have 360 million people,
and 100 million cars
at maybe 400 gallons of gas a year,
and we know that each gallon of gas puts 20 lb CO2 in the air,
that's 800 BILLION POUNDS OF CO2 EACH YEAR!!!

And fossil fuel plants add another 1,200 BILLION POUNDS!

So, looking over all this, I used to think that Al Gore was crazy. His movie, An Inconvenient Truth, was something to laugh at. Silly politician with his Powerpoint slides... Well, he isn't so crazy. We have to do something about this. We are not being good stewards of the earth.