Talk:3134: Wavefunction Collapse

2025-08-28T17:31:47Z

24.53.184.90: academic joke also

For crying out loud, the wavefunction collapse has never been observed. [[Special:Contributions/38.70.240.202|38.70.240.202]] 02:23, 28 August 2025 (UTC)

The term professor actually can also mean "a person who affirms a faith in or allegiance to something." which continues the religious aspect of having a soul. [[Special:Contributions/147.161.213.89|147.161.213.89]] 02:30, 28 August 2025 (UTC)

Actually, '''''I''''' am a god explaining their reality to my comrades, so only when '''''we''''' observe it does the wavefunction collapse. It will not collapse for mere characters in a false reality '''''we''''' created. --'''''[[User:DollarStoreBa'al|DollarStoreBa'al]][[User_talk:DollarStoreBa'al|'''''converse''''']] 02:34, 28 August 2025 (UTC)

So many people misunderstand the Copenhagen interpretation. It is only the most basic theory that could be made based on all our experiments, which is why it says the wavefunction collapse when we measure it in an experiment. It doesnt mean it hasnt collapsed earlier, only that we know it has collapsed when we measure it.[[Special:Contributions/2A02:3103:4C:2400:84BF:B101:8E7D:F4C6|2A02:3103:4C:2400:84BF:B101:8E7D:F4C6]] 06:24, 28 August 2025 (UTC)

is it just me, or is this one similar to [[660: Sympathy]] & [[803: Airfoil]]? —[[User:Winter1760|Winter1760]] ([[User talk:Winter1760|talk]]) 06:59, 28 August 2025 (UTC).
:Yes there is the similarity with three option where the first two are identical but the very wrong has been canged to Chaotic in this comic. We could a mention of it at the bottom. I'll try to put it in. --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 07:40, 28 August 2025 (UTC)

I think "Good", "Bad" and "Chaotic" are references to role playing games, probably Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, but perhaps others as well. Characters in such games have an "alignment", which indicates whether a character tends to do good, or tends to be destructive/evil, or can flip (chaotic). The word "alignment" also has meaning in the world of quantum physics. So this may be a deliberate conflation of worlds. I also like the double meaning of "professor" above in this context. [[User:Gjanssens|Gjanssens]] ([[User talk:Gjanssens|talk]]) 08:17, 28 August 2025 (UTC)
:Randall has previously used the famous "Good/Neutral/Evil" vs "Lawful/Neutral/Chaotic" array, and subsets of it, so it's something we already know he has already used. And "Good/Bad/Chaotic" is a strange path (<any>-Good, <any>-Evil then Chaotic-<any>), and distortion of the gaming 'spectrum', if it was an intended reference. In various ways, I think it just shares the tripartite of the (Good)/(Bad)/''Cursed'' type of sequence that some the [[:Category:Unsolved Problems]] display. It's basically just a {{w|Rule of three (writing)#Comedy|comedic triad}}, the shortest possible {{tvtropes|BreadEggsMilkSquick|'off the deep end' list}}, and I don't think the exact words matter (except being normal->normal->weird). [[Special:Contributions/82.132.244.136|82.132.244.136]] 14:59, 28 August 2025 (UTC)

Randall pokes fun at a severe philosophic problem of all subjectivist interpretations of QM: If a "soul" is needed for wave collapse, or maybe only a being with consciousness - where shall we draw the line? Can Schrödingers cat herself collapse the wavefunction? A cockroach? A bacterium? (Mind you, they rely on a working QM as we.) Or, in the other direction as in this comic, maybe an undergrad doesn't suffice. (Add to explanation?) [[Special:Contributions/2A02:2455:1960:4000:4DF1:8E5D:B4E1:C184|2A02:2455:1960:4000:4DF1:8E5D:B4E1:C184]] 08:58, 28 August 2025 (UTC)
: That is a NON-problem, because it isnt believed by anyone the measurement is what collapses the function, it is the conditions that are necessary to measure properties that collapses it. Which is also why the schrödingers cat is more of a joke than a real physics thought experiment. The wave functions would already have collapse d before you open the box. The only reason the copenhagen interpretation is so vague is specifically to avoid determining when wave functions collapse, so it just says they have collapsed when we make a measurement.[[Special:Contributions/2A02:3103:4C:2400:84BF:B101:8E7D:F4C6|2A02:3103:4C:2400:84BF:B101:8E7D:F4C6]] 12:57, 28 August 2025 (UTC)

学部生でよかった (Translation: I’m glad I’m undergraduate) 《プロキシ》(XKCD中毒者) 12:56, 28 August 2025 (UTC)

Does this mean that a red-headed professor taking a measurement won't collapse the function? [[Special:Contributions/204.113.92.35|204.113.92.35]] 15:18, 28 August 2025 (UTC)

Seems like there's a secondary joke here implying (accurately, unfortunately) that the significance of a study is often dependent on the academic status of the person conducting it. And thus, yes, a full professor's observation of the same phenomenon "counts" more, regardless of the means of measurement. [[Special:Contributions/24.53.184.90|24.53.184.90]] 17:31, 28 August 2025 (UTC)

Talk:3131: Cesium

2025-08-20T23:47:46Z

24.53.184.90: recipe

I think that's called a recipe for disaster. NOTE: I am also 104.225.172.143. [[Special:Contributions/138.43.101.123|138.43.101.123]] 14:36, 20 August 2025 (UTC)
: No, ''I'' am 104.225.172.143! [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 15:09, 20 August 2025 (UTC)
:: I'm 104.225.172.143, and so's my wife! [[Special:Contributions/92.23.2.228|92.23.2.228]] 20:42, 20 August 2025 (UTC)
:::U also chose this guy's wife.

My best recipe comes with a Notice to Mariners [[User:Hcs|Hcs]] ([[User talk:Hcs|talk]]) 14:45, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

I added a transcript. Hopefully it's okay. [[Special:Contributions/104.225.172.143|104.225.172.143]] 14:54, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

A gram of gold runs on the order of ~$100 USD as of writing; a gram of cs-137 looks to be in the millions~billions range. --[[Special:Contributions/158.91.163.9|158.91.163.9]] 14:55, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

: Nope. [https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2024/mcs2024-cesium.pdf It's 99 dollars]. [[Special:Contributions/191.57.16.100|191.57.16.100]] 20:40, 20 August 2025 (UTC)
:: I think you're quoting the price for Caesium metal in general, which is probably almost entirely Caesium 133; Caesium 137 is a synthetic isotope which could easily be a million times more expensive than the natural stuff, gram for gram. [[Special:Contributions/80.41.70.128|80.41.70.128]] 22:37, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

:Caesium contamination usually is caused by nuclear accidents (or atmospheric nuclear weapon tests) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesium-137#Environmental_contamination. It is unlikely that someone acquired pure Cs-137 and then "accidentally" contaminated the shrimp with that. --[[Special:Contributions/134.102.219.31|134.102.219.31]] 15:31, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

Bothering the NSA shouldn't be hard, just write some of their secrets on a cake (with frosting is optional) and post it online. [[Special:Contributions/212.101.26.209|212.101.26.209]] 14:57, 20 August 2025 (UTC)
: I feel like the writing on the cake is not part of its recipe. I think a more fitting way to get their attention would be "accidentally" poisoning the president with your cooking. --[[Special:Contributions/128.31.34.92|128.31.34.92]] 22:09, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

What would IMO do, revoke your math license? [[Special:Contributions/216.73.162.10|216.73.162.10]] 15:22, 20 August 2025 (UTC)
: They have numerous penalties at their disposal. [[Special:Contributions/82.13.184.33|82.13.184.33]] 15:27, 20 August 2025 (UTC)
: I imagined the reason the IMO would get involved would be because the recipe created some interesting mathematical problem that could be used for the next competition. For example, something like [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct3lCfgJV_A this video], where a grocery order taken too literally creates a seemingly harmless Diophantine equation whose smallest positive solutions are on the order of 10^80. [[Special:Contributions/137.25.230.78|137.25.230.78]] 15:56, 20 August 2025 (UTC)
: A cook on Air Force 1 "accidentally" contaminates Trump's fast food with cesium. The assassination attempt fails and US retaliates by invading Canada/Panama/Greenland (roll 1d3). IMO bans the US team, like they banned Russia in 2022. Thus a single cooking "accident" can get the attention of IAEA, IATA, IMO, and NSA. --[[Special:Contributions/128.31.34.92|128.31.34.92]] 22:21, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

Maybe The IATA could get involved if your ruined recipe caused food poisoning on a commercial airliner that then resulted in an in-air emergency (whole flight deck passed out).
:Or if you create a column of dense toxic fumes that spreads over a wide area (on the level of a volcano eruption). On the other hand, I wonder what could bring the attention of the IMO when Terryology seemingly couldn't.--[[Special:Contributions/94.73.52.245|94.73.52.245]] 18:56, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

The criticality accident in 1999 at the Tokaimura nuclear facility seems like a good example of messing up a recipe in a way that draws considerable attention. {{w|Tokaimura nuclear accidents}} [[Special:Contributions/2600:387:4:803:0:0:0:1B|2600:387:4:803:0:0:0:1B]] 19:11, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

1. Randall creates a new way to cook airplane food that is either cheap enough or expensive enough to significantly affect airline ticket pricing. 2. Randall's recipe poisons a Math Olympiad team. 3. The coach of the team turns out to be an undercover spy. [[Special:Contributions/24.53.184.90|24.53.184.90]] 23:47, 20 August 2025 (UTC)

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

Talk:3134: Wavefunction Collapse

Talk:3131: Cesium