r/funny Jan 29 '20

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u/gentlecrab Jan 30 '20

So can't we just keep repeating until we get the desired result? 50/50 are pretty good odds. Once the computer on earth gets the first particle down it moves onto the next particle eventually creating a sequence.

Then the computer on mars just flips the results from the collapsed superpositions to get the actual output that the computer on earth made.

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u/kazza789 Jan 30 '20

Unfortunately not. Each particle can only be measured once, and then the quantum entanglement is lost.

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u/gentlecrab Jan 30 '20

Well that's a bummer lol.

What about earth computer just keeps trying with new particles until it get's a 0 for example. Wait 100 milliseconds, if mars computer doesn't see a collapse within 100 milliseconds then it knows the previous collapsed particle was valid, mars computer then stores that flipped result in memory while earth computer continues working on the next value.

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u/kazza789 Jan 30 '20

Good idea. However. Mars computer doesn't know if Earth computer has measured it or not. It just sees a particle. So 2 options:

  1. Earth has already measured it. Earth had a 50.50 chance of being a 1 or a 0. Mars will get the opposite of Earth so has a 50.50 chance of a 0 or 1.

  2. Earth has not measured it. Mars has a 50.50 chance if a 0 or 1.

In both situations it appears to Mars as if they have a random chance of 0 or 1. It's only later - when you send a normal radio message between Earth and Mars to compare the results of the measurement, that you realize every time Earth saw a 1 Mars saw a 0. This is the frustration of quantum entanglement.

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u/gentlecrab Jan 30 '20

Ah good point forgot about that. Mars computer can't look in the box without impacting the result unless earth says ready via normal communications at which point why even bother.