COPENHAGEN INTERPRETATION OF QUANTUM PHYSICS

‌"What we know is a drop. what we don't know is an ocean" this famous quote was stated by the renowned physicist and scientist Sir Albert Einstein. Science in this new age can be classified as classical and quantum. Classical science is very different from the quantum level. When we look around our surroundings we see the world as it appears, in a simpler manner. We behave with our general perception to draw out our opinions or to explain the behaviour and nature of the universe. Science is a collection of explanations and also a set of arguments that refute these explanations. As science kept on evolving with the evolution of time, so did it's theories. The nature of classical science is very appealing to the general mind as it perfectly fits the common perception of the human brain. For example:- if we know the speed of a car and also the distance it will be travelling then we can easily find out the time. Similarly, if we know the speed of revolution of a planet around the sun and the path of its orbit then we can easily predict the future state of that planet like where it will be one year from now at any desired time. This let to believe that the future can be calculated by observing the past. Einstein believed that everything happening in the universe follows an equation. If a frog is jumping from one spot to another then that frog is following a certain equation and by deriving that equation the future of that frog can be calculated. For example:- where that frog will be after one year and so on. An equation that defines every other equation. The mother of all equation. But Einstein's thought process was challenged by another physicist Werner Heisenberg. His equation proved that there's uncertainty everywhere and the future is not definite. The universe functions as a set of probabilities and not as one definite prefixed outcome. The world of physics thus divided into two. The first are the ones that agreed with Einstein's notion and the other half believed in Heisenberg. But who was right?? Actually, both of them were correct. Einstein gave the famous theory of relativity. But his theory had limitations as it was not applicable to the sub-atomic particles. Relativity was applicable only for the larger objects. The theory of relativity explained gravity as not an unexplained force that attracts mass towards its centre but as the effect of the curvature of space and time. But the same gravity cannot be held responsible if we consider the attraction between the sub-atomic particles. The sub-atomic particles or the particles at the quantum level behaves very bizarrely from the larger objects. Before Heisenberg, it was Neil Bohr who said that our observation can determine the state of these sub-atomic particles. He said that if we take two electrons into consideration then both of them will spin in the same direction unless we observe one electron and when we do that then the other electron will automatically spin in the opposite direction. Einstein rebuffed this statement and told that it has nothing to do with observation. The double-slit experiment which proved light as a wave was once again carried out to find out about the dual behaviour of particles. Electrons were passed through two splits onto a screen. Without an observer, the electrons behaved as a wave but if an observer like a piece of recording equipment was put into use then the electrons behaved as particles. These proved the notion of Neil Bohr. But this doesn't mean that Einstein's theory of relativity was wrong as his theory was proven with experiment. The Copenhagen interpretation states that particles behave as a wave and remains in a superposition of states until any observation is made but when an observation is carried out the system collapses into one definite probability or result. Let us understand with an example:- suppose you are at home in Jorhat reading this article then according to the Copenhagen theory you are everywhere at the same time. Meaning if you are at Jorhat then at the same time you are also in Delhi or in Mumbai or in any location of the globe unless your friend decides to visit and observe you at Jorhat. When he observes you then the entire system collapses into one result that is he will find you at Jorhat and all the other probabilities cancel out. Later a physicist named Schrodinger carried out a thought experiment called the Schrodinger's cat experiment to show how illogical is the concept of Copenhagen interpretation when compared with larger objects. The common perspective fails to make sense of the quantum realm but repeated experiments have shown proof that the outlandish behaviour of particles at the quantum level is as factual as the revolution of the earth around the Sun.