gib65 Posted February 17, 2006 Share Posted February 17, 2006 I know that quantum phenomena (superposition, uncertainty principle, quantum entanglement, probablistic outcomes, etc.) is readily observed in measurements of the states of fundamental particles. How readily are these phenomena observed at higher scales? Take atoms, for example. Has anyone ever observed atoms in superposition? What about complex molecules? Groups of molecules? How far up the ladder of scale can one go before quantum phenomena become practically unobservable? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5614 Posted February 17, 2006 Share Posted February 17, 2006 You can't observe something in superposition, well, technically maybe you can, but the second you do observe it the atom is no longer in a superposition. The double slit experiment works on molecules up to the size of a buckminsterfullerene (and I actually spelt that correctly!) which is 60 carbon atoms bonded together. You could probably go a bit bigger, maybe it has already been done, but I doubt you'd get much bigger than the C60 molecule. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klaynos Posted February 17, 2006 Share Posted February 17, 2006 C60 is the biggest that I've heard of, the issue with bigger particles is that the slits ahve to be on the same order of magnitude of the debrogglie wavelength of the particle. [math]\lambda = \frac {h} {mv}[/math] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m4rc Posted March 29, 2006 Share Posted March 29, 2006 One group managed to get quantum interference patterns from fluronated buckyballs C60F48 as well as other large molecules. See http://physicsweb.org/articles/world/18/3/5. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[Tycho?] Posted March 29, 2006 Share Posted March 29, 2006 Man thats pretty neat, I didn't know they could get so big and still observe those effects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanJ Posted March 29, 2006 Share Posted March 29, 2006 '']Man thats pretty neat, I didn't know they could get so big and still observe those effects. Some people think it can actually be done with things as big as bacteria although - sounds pertty strange and no-one has done it yet so it may not be possible. Cheers, Ryan Jones Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fermions Posted March 29, 2006 Share Posted March 29, 2006 Is superfluid a kind of macroscopic quantum phenomenum ? there are many pictures of superfluids climbing up the surface of a bottle... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5614 Posted March 29, 2006 Share Posted March 29, 2006 Yes, a superfluidity is a quantum effect which is works when bosons all collapse into the same (and lowest) quantum state. They are also known as Bose-Einstein Condensates (or BEC), see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bose-Einstein_condensate or here: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/particles/spinc.html#c4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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