Allan Goff’s Entanglements

A Google Blog Search on “quantum tic tac toe” revealed this article by Ian Durham on his Quantum Moxie blog.

Now this is cool. I’ll be testing the pedagogical usefulness this spring in my QM class and potentially my General Physics class as well (we do a brief overview of quantum physics). I’ve always wanted to create a game that taught quantum mechanics or some other aspect of physics. My mother used to use games as pedagogical tools to teach French (she’s retired).

Good on you, Ian! Thanks for the mention! Perhaps you might care to comment further on the effectiveness of QT3 in your class.

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quantum physics
quantum tic tac toe

http://quantummoxie.blogspot.com/2007/01/quantum-tic-tac-toe.html

Update

The Quantum Moxie blog has moved: http://quantummoxie.wordpress.com/. There have been no updates on Mr. Durham’s experimental use of Quantum Tic-Tac-Toe in his classroom.

http://quantummoxie.wordpress.com/2007/01/07/quantum-tic-tac-toe/

Today in ScienceDaily we read that “the record for the most amount of information sent by a single photon has been broken by researchers at the University of Illinois”:

The article states that:

In classical coding, a single photon will convey only one of two messages, or one bit of information. In dense coding, a single photon can convey one of four messages, or two bits of information.

The article states further that:

Using linear elements, however, the standard protocol is fundamentally limited to convey only one of three messages, or 1.58 bits. The new experiment surpasses that threshold by employing pairs of photons entangled in more ways than one (hyper-entangled). As a result, additional information can be sent and correctly decoded to achieve the full power of dense coding.

It goes on to quote graduate student Julio Barreiro:

“While hyper-entanglement in spin and orbital angular momentum enables the transmission of two bits with a single photon, atmospheric turbulence can cause some of the quantum states to easily decohere, thus limiting their likely communication application to satellite-to-satellite transmissions.”

Thanks to Slashdot for the alert!

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080324112847.htm

Written by Neil Shubin, a paleontologist and professor of anatomy, this is a delightful book about the history of our bodies, where their internal structures comes from, and why we look the way we do. He uses a hundred or so detailed examples of how our bodies are refinements of earlier versions. Using evidence from the fossil record, the anatomy of currently living creatures, and DNA analysis, he demonstrates how all life on earth is connected through descent with modification. This pattern is so strong that along with geology, biologists can predict where to look for specific types of fossils. He used this technique to pinpoint promising locations on earth to find the missing link between fish and land animals. This he achieved in 2004 with his discovery in Canada of Tikaalik, the fossilized remains of a creature with the expected mix of fish and land animal features. <div>The ultimate test of any theory is its ability to predict. What most impressed me about this book was exactly that. Using the established geological timeline, using the physics and chemistry of rocks, erosion, fossilization, and tectonic movements, and understanding when the missing link between sea and land animals had to have been alive, his team predicted the likely locations of such fossils, went there, and found what theory said should exist. This is dramatic confirmation of one of the foundational concepts of evolution, that all life is descended from earlier life, and therefore in a strong sense is just variations on a theme. </div>The rest of the book explores additional evidence for our common ancestry and shows how this increased understanding is paving the way for curing diseases and other aliments that have their basis in our common heritage. Very informative, enlightening, and enjoyable.

Apparently Chuck likes to have lunch and discuss QT3. At least, that’s what his friend blogged:

Lunch was good. I had a chicken sandwich in a vain attempt to watch my LDL’s (the bacon probably offset the meat choice). CP and I caught up on old times, talked about geek stuff and generally annoyed the people around us. He belongs to a geek-fest group that meets on alternate Thursdays to discuss topics such as Quantum tic-tac-toe, ways to decrease the cost of putting a payload in space and whether man has free will. (Some of you are going w00t! and the rest are rolling your eyes.)

Chuck, you should invite your friend to the Salon!

The other day I was listening to Talk of the Nation on NPR and the topic caught my ear: If You Could Travel in Time, Where Would You Go?

Of course, it reminded me of the Salon and the many conversations we’ve had about time travel. It’s worth a listen!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88106723

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time travel

arXiv

The team used a 1.5 metre telescope called the Matera Laser Ranging Observatory in Italy to bounce single photons off the Ajisai geodetic satellite, an orbiting disco ball that is used for laser ranging measurements.

This is very encouraging to me. Every experiment I think of to test space like causality, requires entangled photons to travel great distances.

Hat tip: slashdot.

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quantum physics
quantum cryptography

Formal logic is one of humanity’s major conceptual advances. Yet it turns out that formal logic has a soft underbelly - self-reference. Over and over again, in fields from logic to mathematics, to quantum physics, to computer design and software, even to philosophy and comics, self-reference invalidates well established truths. This paradigm shifting power of self-reference is our fundamental theme. We will be exploring its implications for logic, physics, time travel, free will, computers, games, space transportation, etc, etc, etc. The breadth of fields it impacts is surprising. Its ability to prove possible well established impossibilities is staggering. Our mission is to seek out and reveal self-reference in all its various guises, to discover the loopholes that permit the impossible.

Welcome to the Paradigm Frontier. 

Although the Salon is very scientific, this made me think of my friends in the salon!