Some light quantum mechanics (with minutephysics)
Why Hacker News recommends it
Recommended as an approachable way to understand the quantum nature of light and basic quantum math without heavy machinery.
What it is
3Blue1Brown, in collaboration with minutephysics, introduces the math of superposition and quantum states using polarized light. It builds up the quantum behavior of photons as a simple counting and probability problem.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2020 to 2022.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec vulcan01 · 2020-04 · on “Ask HN: What scientific phenomenon do you wish someone would explain better?”
I found these two videos very helpful in understanding the quantum nature of light after being stuck in the same spot: [LINK] [this video] (Watch those in order, because they're a collaboration between two YouTubers)
Recommends monocasa · 2020-04 · on “Ask HN: What scientific phenomenon do you wish someone would explain better?”
Minute Physics and 3brown1blue did a two part collab that simplifies some of it down to a counting problem that'd be suitable for grade school. [LINK] [this video]
Cites guerrilla · 2022-01 · on “Why Quantum Mechanics?”
> I have a lot of trouble imagining any experiment which could completely rule out every other influencing factor It's called Bell's theorem and it can even be tested at home[4]. There are no local hidden variables in quantum mechanics.[1][2][3] 1. [LINK] 2. [LINK] 3. [LINK] 4a. [LINK] 4b. [this video]
Cites gus_massa · 2022-10 · on “Chaos theory eliminates quantum uncertainty”
What you are describing is a "hidden variable" theory. They are disproved by the experiments of the Bell's inequality. It's more weird, much more weird. Let's continue with your experiment about the pair of red or green socks. If you and your friend measure if they are red-or-green, both will get the same results. This can be explained with a classical theory. Nobody disagree with that. The weird part is that you can measure if they are 50%red and 50%green! Can I call it yellow? This makes no sense with classical socks and colors, but it makes sense for quantum particles and other properties. But there are two ways to combine 50%red and 50%green, the technical notation is (R+G)/sqrt(2) and (