Alive and Dead...part 1

No no no, i am not talking about blog...its pretty much heading towards the dead side but NOO we shall not let it...COME ONNN!!
I was hoping the blog would be overflowing with posts by now...tch tch...but since its not,u are forcing me to do the unthinkable...I wanted to post some mindless timepass but i am actually going to post something that could be useful, maybe even a little educational...
Before I dive into what i was about to write, I want to share a small anecdote which now brings a smile to my face everytime I think about it. It was about 5 yrs ago and many of you here were sitting with me in KPR's sirs class(I respect that man too much to even imagine not calling him sir even on paper!!) ...anyways i am digressing, it was before the board exams and we were discussing one of his revision papers which we had answered a while ago. As he was giving out the answers, one of our pasanga(think adi it was you) gets up and asks sir if the answer could be X and Y. He looks up and in his usual low voice says "U can be either be dead OR alive but not dead AND alive at the same time". It was a good analogy to counter the doubt and we had a good laugh.
Fast forward many years ahead, to about a few months before i write this and I open the wikipedia page for Schrodingers cat--> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schrödinger's_cat To those who did get this and its immense significance, u need not read on but for those who this page left you with more questions than answers, let me introduce you to the wonderful journey that is Quantum Mechanics(QM). No no do not worry, the rest of this post will not be technical and filled with complex equations, though they do form an integral part of it. I shall for the most part explain the basic ideas in simple words and convey what i know and leave you wondering on how beautiful and mysterious the world around us works.
U might ask...now wait a second, werent you studying electrical engineering?? Isnt quantum mechanics a very "physics" like subject? When and how did you end up learning it? and is it possible to even put something that is sooooooo scary in simple words??
Yes quantum theory for the most part deals with atoms,molecules and all the small thingys but with our electronic gadgets becoming smaller by the day, the need for electrical engineers to know this theory is quickly becoming very relevant. And yes, believe it or not, it is actually POSSIBLE to state the basic ideas of quantum mechanics in simple words. For many yrs now, like many others, I too have related the vast subject of QM with complex equations and derivations running for miles but over the course of the last 6 months, I have been shown that it is only one small part of what is undoubtedly the most powerful theory available!! And for this I shall forever be thankful to Prof.NGA, my QM teacher and academic advisor.
If you guys havent realised it already, I have developed an unhealthy obsession for the subject devouring whatever i can get my hands on, and it gets me excited everytime i find something new that it so brilliantly predicts!!(yes yes i need a life, and maybe a girlfriend as well lol). As gun once said, "i will marry QM if i can"!!, well he didnt say QM, he was talking about math but i definitely will!!
Lets start with a little history shall we...we all know our Newtons laws and the physics based on those 3 laws is referred to as Classical mechanics(CM). For a very very long time, to almost about 120 yrs ago, CM was considered to be the end of physics, it seemed to explain everything so nicely-from planetary motion to our everyday world with a very good degree of accuracy and the 3 laws had what we scientists (ahem ahem :P ) call "intuitive appeal". U read newtons laws and it makes sense dont they? It makes sense to a level that you think "hmmm thats quite obvious, why did he have to call that a law!! its common sense!! stoopid newton!!" The reason for this is that the laws fit beautifully with things around you and u can relate to them. You see a table in your room and if your not moving it with some force, it wont move but always stay there aka Newtons 1st law. I will come back to this intuitive appeal again. Anyway we had CM and everyone was happy, but...but... a few scientists went poking around with atoms and did this experiment and that and found that the experimental data was quite contrary to what CM says it would be. (To the science students, these will include experiments with black body radiation, the photoelectric effect, atomic spectrum, etc) Anyways the most notable among those who proposed a quantum theory( note: quantum comes from the greek word 'quanta' meaning discrete amounts) include Max Planck (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Planck) and Niels Bohr(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niels_Bohr). Note that both went onto receive the Nobel for there work in this theory. However their ideas werent so widely accepted at first because it meant leaving the safety and comfort of CM and embracing something new and possibly dangerous (in its implications) :)
If you were to look into the history of science, the stories of Bohr is actually quite interesting. The final boost to QM came from Einstein himself who suggested something quite revolutionary (which later is the wave-particle duality proved by DeBroglie in his Phd dissertation!!! oops.. getting a little too technical??) Anyway Bohr strongly opposed Einsteins idea even though it would perfectly support the idea of QM. However Einstein later went on to prove his idea(through photoelectric effect) and receieved the Nobel for it.(Yes it is amazing that Einstein did not actually get the Nobel for his e=mc^2, the worlds most famous equation!!) Anyway Bohr did an whole 180 shift and embraced the idea which he had once vehemently opposed(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohr–Einstein_debates). To balance the books, Einstein became less loyal to the QM he had helped prove when Heisenberg came up with the very famous Uncertainity Principle...the very famous statement by Einstein "God doesnt play dice" is a small jab at this principle. Anyway this is how the theory began and from then onwards, it hasnt stopped with more and more scientists coming up whole new ideas that shook the very way we viewed things, soon leaving the realm of science and venturing into the philosophical and metaphysical!!
I promised to state the basic postulates but digressed a little too much into the history...I shall stop here and let you catch your breathe and prepare yourself for the mind boggling journey ahead(if you are brave enof to take it)...

natesh
how deep does the rabbit hole run??

ps: agent, i hope u are reading this...hopefully it should help you understand the QM part in study of dreams if you come across it..