Feed on   Posts or   Comments 23 November 2009

Uncategorized | Post by Jessica on April 3rd, 2009

Quantum Erasers:
Possibilities for changing the past, or not really?

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Welcome back to spring quarter SPS members. For some of us spring break was about bikinis, world traveling, good food and fun, but I’m sure you guys all brushed up on your PDEs and 3D TDSE, I know I did. It’s starting to look like another busy, late-nights-at-the-library-until-they-kick-you-out-kind of a quarter (meet me in the undergrad lounge).
Hope to see you there.
Everyone is welcome.

Coffee, tea and snacks will be provided. Although I know that’s not why you’ll be there.

A link to Karen Barad’s Meeting the Universe Halfway is here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=4qYorOpfB6EC&dq=meeting+the+universe+halfway&source=gbs_summary_s&cad=0

Luckily, we have a great quarter lined up for you guys.

The first meeting will be  Thursday, April 2, 2009 at 6:00 P.M.in ISB 231/235. Speaking will be Prof. Karen Barad who although is a faculty member of the Feminist Studies dept. recieved her Ph.D. in  Theoretical Particle Physics at SUNY Stony Brook

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Uncategorized | Post by Jessica on April 3rd, 2009

Pizza-and-Giant Electrical Arcs:
A Tesla Coil Demonstration

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NOTE : This week’s SPS meeting will be at a STRANGE TIME: 4:00 PM and note the EVEN STRANGER PLACE: THIMANN 1

Nothing brings out the true physicist in each of us as discharging a million volts onto our favorite professor Stefano Profumo, and our favorite undergrad Carlin Fuerst.  (Which was a clever ploy to trick the unknowing Jessica into the suit of armor)

This week SPS@UCSC will be having a JOINT meeting with the Physics Colloquium.

The Santa Cruz Institue for Particle Physics‘ Outreach  program will demonstrate for you the coil which the Master of Lightning, Nikola Tesla, used to amaze and frighten many people.  They do regular demonstrations to inspire people in schools K-College to pursue the sciences, and learn about physics. So, if you think you would like to be a part of their team come to the demo for more information and lots of fun.

Bring your friends so they too can be amazed by the Tesla Coil, and celebrate all of Tesla’s scientific contributions to the world.

Coffee, tea and snacks will be provided. Everyone is welcome.

Join us after for pizza and dis-charge in ISB 231

The SCIPP Outreach/Tesla Coil Website is here:

http://scipp.ucsc.edu/outreach/tesla/teslacoil/


Uncategorized | Post by Jessica on April 3rd, 2009

Spooky Action at a Distance:
A Simple Derivation of Bell’s Theorem

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As you may know Einstein never accepted Quantum Mechanics, but as Feynman said “I think it’s safe to say no one understands Quantum Mechanics.”
Naturally something as outrageous and as non-intuitive as quantum mechanics, which addresses something as profound as consciousness, can lead to some strange and nonsensical ideas that have provoked misinformation among the general public.
This week at SPS, which will be Thursday, March 5 at 6:00 P.M. in Isb 231 , Professor Fred Kuttner from the UCSC Physics Dept. will talk on “Spooky Action at a Distance: A Simple Derivation of Bell’s Theorem“.

In 1975 Stapp called Bell’s Theorem “the most profound discovery of science.” In Kuttner’s words:

Bell’s theorem and the experiments resulting from it have answered some age-old philosophical questions about the nature of reality.  I will discuss a little of the history behind his theorem, give a simple derivation of the theorem, and discuss the experimental results and their implications.

Questions like:
  • Are there local hidden variables in entagled pairs of particles?
  • Or, how does Bell’s Theorem show the impossibilty of local realism?
  • Are conscioussness and the physical world intimately connected?
  • Was this e-mail sent because you checked your email, or is it still in my Outbox?
will definitely be addressed, and maybe answered.
Knowledge of the basic ideas of Quantum Mechanics is good. Misinformation is bad.
Hope to see you there.
Everyone is welcome, and don’t worry bra-ket notation will not be covered.


Coffee, tea and snacks will be provided.

And Alain Aspect’s view on Bell’s Theorem is here:

http://www-ece.rice.edu/~kono/ELEC565/Aspect_Nature.pdf