(snoring sounds)
(loud needle scratch)
I'm sorry... I fell asleep...
I wasn't expecting you guys so soon.
This is That Sci-Fi Show and I'm your host Jay Parks.
Roll the bump.
Today's Show is about Rick and Morty and quantum mechanics.
That's why I'm working on this.
You see, I turned this remote into a device that will allow me to freeze time.
That way when I need to take a nap, I can take a nap... you know, pause time, take a
nap, unpause time... nobody will be the wiser.
Just like Rick does on the show.
This remote, however, will not fast forward or rewind becuase I can not have another Adam
Sander's Click situation on my hands.
I'm just making some adjustments and I really just need to be careful becuase one wrong
move and I could...
(crash sound effect)
Oh No!
Oh No!
Two dots.
It's got two dots!
This should only ever have one dot.
That's unfortunate.
Look, I just need to...
I just need to make sure that I'm certain about everything.
Any uncertainty could split reality apart again.
I mean, I think it will... there's no way to be certain.
(crash sound effect)
That's not a good sign.
I should (no!, I am certainly going to) let you guys watch this prerecorded footage while
I fix time and space.
Roll the footage.
Rick and Morty is an animated sci-fi sitcom created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon for
Adult Swim.
It follows a cynical, irresponsible, drunken mad scientist named Rick Sanchez and his somewhat
naive grandson Morty while they travel through space and between dimensions using Rick's
portal gun.
It's basically Back to the Future except they travel through the multiverse rather than
time (and no one ever awkwardly dates their mom).
The science in the show is often just an excuse for some wonderfully geeky humor.
Rick and Morty references enough scientific concepts to do dozens of these videos but
today we're going to focus this show on quantum mechanics.
Be sure to check out the sources, which are in the description below, if you want to know
more.
Okay, so what is Quantum mechanics?
Basically, it's a category of physics that investigates the extremely tiny.
It attempts to explain how matter behaves and interacts with energy at the scale of
subatomic particles.
Quantum mechanics is different from classical physics because energy and momentum have characteristics
of both particles and waves.
Once you get down to the scale of atoms and electrons, a lot of the equations we use to
describe how things move at "normal" sizes and speeds are simply no longer useful.
Objects exist at a specific time and a specific place in normal, classical mechanics but in
quantum mechanics, objects instead have a certain probability of being at any particular
point.
Scientists are far from agreeing on which interpretation of quantum mechanics is correct,
but Rick and Morty's universe seems to be based on the Many-Worlds Interpretation of
quantum mechanics.
Formulated by physicist Hugh Evert in 1957, the Many-Worlds Interpretation of quantum
mechanics supposes that many worlds exist in parallel at the same point in space and
time.
These other worlds can remove the randomness and action at a distance from quantum theory
and as a result, from all of physics.
So if the many worlds interpretation is truly correct, that means there's not just one universe
but an infinite set of branching universes... just like the ones Rick and Morty travel through
using Rick's portal gun.
Rick's portal gun travels through both space and Multiple dimensions or timelines.
Some of these alternate timelines are vastly different from our own while others are the
same aside from some minor (or major) detail.
The basic idea here, is that everything that can happen, has happened, in some alternate
timeline.
Rick will be the first one to tell you that this concept inevitability leads to some "uncomfortable"
realizations.
For now though, let's ignore that sage advice and dig in a litter deeper.
The show also makes reference to Schrödinger's cat, a paradox formulated by Austrian physicist
Erwin Schrödinger in 1935.
It's a very creative (and somewhat dark) thought experiment meant to illustrate what Schrödinger
believed was the problem with the Copenhagen interpretation when applied to normal objects.
The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics dates back to 1925 through 1927 when Niels
Bohr, Werner Heisenberg (not that Heisenberg) and their team came up with what is now the
most commonly accepted interpretation of quantum mechanics.
The Copenhagen interpretation states that until they are measured, physical systems
(generally speaking) do not have definite properties and that quantum mechanics can
only predict the probability that measurements will produce any specific results.
(cut to the Professor from Futurama: "No fair!
You changed the outcome by measuring it!")
The act of measurement affects the system, causing the set of probabilities to reduce
to only one of the possible values immediately after the measurement.
This feature is known as wave function collapse.
If that sounds complicated, that's because it is, this video gave me a headache, but
let's go back to Schrödinger's cat for a moment.
Maybe someone else can explain this better than I can.
Hey stewdippin!
Hey Jay!
I'm doing a Rick and Morty Video.
Sounds Awesome.
Thanks!
Listen man, could you explain Schrödinger's cat to my audience?
Jay... dude, I'm kind of busy right now.
Alright, hear me out on this.
You're immortal, right, which means your life is infinite.
Okay...
Then that means there's a 100% chance that you'll eventually do everything, including
explaining Schrödinger's cat to my audience.
eah, just one problem with that.
I'm not immortal.
Really?
I thought you were a time lord.
That was a costume...
You know time lord's aren't real?
Right?
Yes?
Okay.
Fine, I'll do it.
A poor little kitty cat is placed in a box that is protected from (and sealed off from)
the environment.
A Geiger counter and tiny bit of some radioactive element are in the room.
Within some time, say one day, one of the radioactive element's atoms might decay, or
there might be no decay.
The Geiger counter can measure whether or not any decay has occurred.
If it measures decay, it will release a poison, which will kill the cat.
If it doesn't, it won't.
The cat may be thought of as simultaneously both alive and dead, a state known as a quantum
superposition, as a result of being linked to a random subatomic event that may or may
not occur.
This thought experiment helps us understand both the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum
mechanics and the problem that Schrödinger saw in it.
If the Copenhagen interpretation suggests the radioactive material can have simultaneously
decayed and not decayed in the sealed environment, then it follows that the cat too is both alive
and dead until the box is opened.
Thanks Ricky!
(voice in backgroud: EXTERMINATE!
EXTERMINATE!)
You're welcome Jay.
Listen, I've got to go.
I'm in the middle of something.
(TARDIS noise)
I knew he was a time lord.
Common sense tells us this is not the case, and Schrödinger used this to highlight the
limits of the Copenhagen interpretation when applied to practical situations.
The cat is actually either dead or alive, whether or not it has been observed.
In the many worlds interpretation, the cat would be both alive and dead until observed.
After that, the universe would split into two timelines.
One where cat is alive and another where the cat is dead.
It should be noted, however that modern experiments have revealed that while quantum superposition
does work for tiny things like electrons, larger objects must be regarded differently.
Using modern insights into entanglement and nonlocality, the apparent paradox of Schrödinger
cat disappears is explained.
Sadly, we're out of time for this video so we'll have to leave it there but if you'd
like to see a video on entanglement and nonlocality then let me know in the comments section.
Well, if this works then everything should go back to normal.
Alright!
It's all fixed and I didn't have to deal with any testicle monsters or put on a silly collar!
Thank you all for joining me for this episode of That Sci-Fi Show.
Please give this video a like and share it with someone you know that loves Rick and
Morty.
If you haven't already, please subscibe and click that bell so you get notified when we
upload a new video.
Until next time, my name is Jay.
Wubba lubba dub dub!
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