this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 96 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I think the meme is just poking fun at the physics behind the whole thing, but in case anyone doesn’t know:

It’s called the observer effect, and it happens because:

This is often the result of utilizing instruments that, by necessity, alter the state of what they measure in some manner.

And particularly in the double-slit experiment:

Physicists have found that observation of quantum phenomena by a detector or an instrument can change the measured results of this experiment.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer_effect_(physics)

So for anyone who wants to have a surface understanding of the observer effect, the wiki does a fair job of the basic explanation.

[–] IlIllIIIllIlIlIIlI@lemmy.world 12 points 7 months ago

Yep, the observer it is not only observing, it is interacting in order to measure.