Title: quantum mechanics - Observer effect, do this mean literally someone or just any interaction with other matter? - Physics Stack Exchange
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Observer effect, do this mean literally someone or just any interaction with other matter?
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Observer effect, do this mean literally someone or just any interaction with other matter? Ask Question
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I am a layman and was wondering, the quantum observer effect. The regular notion to laymen seems to be literally "if you look at it", but as I am coming to understand the world I live in better I feel it means just coming in contact with something. Is this an ongoing question? Whether a particle that is not interacting with anything undergoes changes in state? Though now that confuses me too, If it is in two states at once. What denote say spin to the left from spin to the right, what denotes the origins of the calculations we make? quantum-mechanics measurement-problem observers
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edited Apr 10 '13 at 21:23
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asked Apr 10 '13 at 21:05
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"Observation" means interaction with anything, which might be a sentient being or might simply be matter. At very small scales (sub-atomic) particles can exist in several states at once.