A Rare Look at Quantum Mechanics in Action

In a world where seeing is believing, one of the chief disadvantages of quantum physics, unlike Newtonian physics, is that it’s largely invisible. The wonderfully bizarre rules that allow a vanishingly small particle to exist in two places simultaneously, or two seemingly isolated particles to influence each other across space—what Einstein called spooky action at distance—usually apply at scales too small to be seen by the naked eye. But not always. Here, physicist Boaz Almog of Israeli’s Tel Aviv University gives audience members of the 5th Annual World Science Festival Gala Celebration—and now the rest of us—a rare macroscopic view of the magical properties of quantum mechanics. Sharing the stage with fellow physicist Brian Green, Almog conducts the first public demonstration of an ethereal phenomenon he calls quantum levitation, sending a thin wafer super-chilled below -301 degrees F zipping around a circular track like a miniature flying saucer. Boaz also makes the wafer hover in midair, frozen as though trapped in a vat of invisible glue. How? Watch as Greene explains.

            


source  world science festival