Quantum Life: Conclusion

Her investigation into quantum states eventually led Dr. Carson to solve the mysteries of dark energy and string theory, for which she was subsequently awarded the Nobel Prize in physics.

Dr. Carson never followed Kransky's example of reenacting the Schroedinger's Cat experiment, for fear of bringing him back, nor did she ever wear a black leotard while lecturing on black holes, despite the requests of many students. 

She was quite content to put a theoretical cat into a theoretical box when teaching her classes, and her students were equally content to look at their cell phones. 

If Professor Kransky contributed anything to science, it was to show that real life and quantum physics should never be mixed.

Return to the main story to try the other quantum state.

*******************
A big thank you to halfshellvenus as my in-house IT department and beta reader.

Quantum Life: A Physical State

Professor Kransky's quantum state was, unfortunately, death. 

While it was unusual for such a tiny amount of radiation to kill anyone, it was not impossible.  Paul Kransky left behind no family or friends, but his death had a profound effect on Stephanie Carson.

"I don't have to work for that idiot anymore!"  She was ashamed that this was her first thought after Kransky's death was confirmed, but only a little.  Dr. Carson was brilliant, with a creative and curious mind, but she had been forced to work with Kransky as a condition of her grant.

Despite the coroner's ruling that Kransky's death was a freak accident, Dr. Carson wanted to find out if there were any contributing factors from his experiment.

Her research took several years as she extended the limits of quantum physics.  Many published articles later, Dr. Carson determined that when Professor Kransky made himself part of Schroedinger's paradox, he put himself at the mercy of quantum physics and he allowed his fate to be determined by his students, who had voted him to death.  This later became known as the Carson Effect in her honor and cemented her position as one of the giants of theoretical physics.

Quantum State A

Or

The conclusion...

Quantum Life: The Quantum State

Prof. Kransky had disappeared.

Unaware that the class had determined that he was dead, Kransky, not surprisingly, viewed himself as alive.  As a result of the paradox, he wasn't in the classroom anymore. He wasn't not in the classroom, either. In fact, it had become impossible to pin down his exact location. 

Kransky had entered a state of simultaneous existence/non-existence, previously unknown to scientists.

"It's just a stupid magic trick!" yelled a student in the front row.  The other students were too busy with their phones to notice anything, although later the twitterverse, which was not affected by quantum principles, was full of praise for the novel lecturing technique.

Dr. Carson had no idea what had just happened.  All she knew was that she saw a glimmer in the box, which quickly vanished, so she texted everyone to go home until Kransky returned.

Kransky never returned, at least not in his original state.  "What just happened?" he thought.  "One minute, I'm in a dark box, and the next . . . I don't know."

He climbed out of the box, but the classroom was empty.  This, by itself, did not bother him, since the students frequently left early for emergencies.  Kransky did notice that colors had become more vibrant and that everything had a slight sheen.  There was also the problem with his body.  It kept blinking in and out of existence.  "I'll need to get that looked at," he thought, but he wasn't particularly worried.  That was the other thing Kransky noticed -- he wasn't particularly anything.

"I need to find Stephanie, she'll know what's going on," he thought.  Stephanie was almost as brilliant as he was, and under his tutelage she was sure to have a great career.  "She just needs to do something about those eyes," he thought.  Lately, Kransky noticed that her eyes had started to roll involuntarily during his lectures.

Kransky's first steps changed his plans.  He stumbled, and fell through the chairs.  "That's odd," he thought, as he picked himself out of the students' seats.  He had an idea.  Rather than open the classroom doors, he successfully tried passing through them.  "Neat!" thought Kransky.  "But that's not normal.  It usually hurts when I walk into them."

Kransky held his hand in front of his face.  "It still has that funny glow."  The building's outside walls were made of reflecting glass, and he could see the nearby trees, buildings and students, but not himself, at least not consistently.  Sometimes he was there, sometimes not, but nobody else seemed to see him.  One of the students walked right through him, which was an interesting experience.

His training as a physicist finally kicked in.  "I must be in some kind of altered state."  That seemed like a fun idea, for a moment.  "If I can walk through solid matter, then what's holding me up?"

That was Kransky's mistake. With this realization, he plunged through the sidewalk, and then the ground underneath.  He passed through the layered structure of the Earth, at first getting hotter as he zoomed through the crust, then the mantle and the core, going faster and faster.  He passed right through the solid inner core, and began his experience in reverse, cooling down and then gradually slowing until he emerged on the opposite side of the Earth.

"I always wondered about that," Kransky thought, who was known for his original ideas.  He had stacks of unpublished papers on his desk rejected by backward-thinking journals, whose editors were too limited in their scope to appreciate the genius of his mind.

His second thought was to notice that he was floating on his head in the middle of an ocean.  "Where am I?" thought Kransky, not unreasonably.  Were he not geographically impaired, Kransky would have known that the Indian Ocean is on the other side of the Earth from UCLA. 

"Thank god for gravity!" Kransky said to a passing shark, which fortunately wasn't interested in eating a glimmer today.  With the realization that the only force acting on him was gravity, he ping-ponged several times between California and the Indian Ocean before he managed to get himself under control and stop back at UCLA.

During his trips through the earth, Kransky managed, finally, to solve the puzzle of his existence.  "I'm an angel," he thought.  "I must have died in that box."  Kransky's particles immediately rearranged themselves to include wings, but no halo.

Kransky flew around for a while, seeing Los Angeles from the air, which did not excite him.  He wondered when he would actually see Heaven, because he was getting bored and hungry.  "I didn't know angels got hungry," he thought.  Regrettably, this was to lead to his downfall.

Kransky did not truly comprehend the possibilities of his quantum state.  The only force acting on his particles was gravity, and the only constraint was his imagination.  He could have been anywhere, instantaneously, and in any form.  The universe was his playground and time was meaningless.  As a physicist, he could have solved the problems of dark energy or been part of the creation of the universe.

Because Kransky had not thought of any of this, he was controlled by his immediate thoughts, erratic though they were.  Deciding that he needed food, Kransky became food.  He turned into a club sandwich while flying over the Pacific Ocean and fell from the sky.

Not only does a sandwich lack wings, it lacks imagination or any kind of thought.  There was no way out of this particular existence.  At that moment, Paul Kransky's quantum state was permanently fixed and he ceased to exist except as bacon, turkey and bread, which fell to the sea floor and eventually disintegrated, returning his physical matter to the universe.

Professor Kransky's unfortunate experiment was not without consequences to others. 

Stephanie Carson knew that there had been no magic trick, because Kransky was incapable of pulling one off.  The sight of the glimmer when she opened the box intrigued her, and as a scientist, she had to determine what had happened that day.  Her search for answers was the start of a magnificent career.


Quantum State B

Or

The conclusion...

Season 10, Week 7: Quantum Life

Topic: "Where I'm From"

An Explanation.  The physics in this story is obviously more imaginative than actual, but since it's my story, I get to decide on the science.  Think of it as "based upon" science, and ignore the massive errors.  If you do know the physics involved, you can feel superior, which is not a bad thing if you don't get carried away with it.  Teenson says he understands it, but I don't believe him.  I did not let him check my science, because the less superior he feels right now, the better.  It's a character issue.

QUANTUM LIFE

Paul Kransky deserved either a Nobel Prize or a dunce cap for the events on August 12, 2012.  He was a professor of physics at UCLA and he fancied himself an inspiring teacher.  He was famous for his annual lecture on black holes, which he gave while wearing a black leotard.  This always generated a flurry of tweets.

To celebrate the 125th birthday of the famous physicist Erwin Schroedinger, Prof. Kransky planned to enact the famous "Schroedinger's Cat" thought experiment, with an important twist.

In 1935, Prof. Schroedinger had wanted to illustrate a paradox when quantum physics was applied to ordinary life.  Because the quantum state of a particle depended on whether it was observed or not, Schroedinger had proposed locking a cat in a box with some radioactive material.  The cat's life or death depended on whether the material emitted certain particles or not.

To an outside observer, the fate of the cat was unknown because the state of the radioactive material was unknown, and thus, the poor cat remained both alive and dead until the box was opened and the state of the radioactive material was known, which also determined the fate of the cat.

While Schroedinger had the good sense not to do this to a cat, Kransky decided to try it on himself in honor of the great man.

"Good morning, class," Prof. Kransky began on that fateful day.  "Today I'm going to illustrate the Schroedinger's Cat paradox by putting myself in this large pine box with a small quantity of radioactive material.  You won't know whether I'm alive or dead until the box is opened."  Dr. Stephanie Carson, his graduate assistant, could be seen off to one side, holding her head in awe of her boss's brilliance.

Dr. Carson, her cheeks red with excitement, helped Prof. Kransky into the box, then she put in the radioactive isotope and shut the top.  After a few minutes, Dr. Carson asked the class to vote on whether Prof. Kransky was alive.  The class, applying their understanding of quantum physics, voted unanimously that he was dead. 

Dr. Carson opened the box to determine Prof. Kransky's quantum fate.

Quantum State A?

OR

Quantum State B?