Thread: Probabilities.

If possible, in decimal form, could anyone please tell me the probability of a person disappearing and reappearing in another universe/area inside same universe etc, as Quantum mechanics denotes?

PS: I can not find on the internet.

I wouldn't want to attempt to calculate that probability. From experience with other quantum calculations, I can say with confidence that in the lifetime of the universe, no organized object the size of a person has ever done any such thing. Even the chance of one atom leaving your body and going to the other side of the room without interacting with something along the way is completely negligible, and I don't even need to know the size of the room to say that.

Perhaps this may be of interest.

NOVA | The Fabric of the Cosmos

see chapter five - teleportation -

Well, whatever the odds. The probability of you appearing about a millimeter next to where you are standing now is about 1 in 10^34. Considering the quadratic increase, and that you are a million lightyears away (that is 34+6+30( should put your odds at aroung 1 in 10^70. And that is in an empty universe with, just you.
Not really happening. There is a reason why in the hitchhikers guide the machine is called the 'infinite' probability engine.

This is the best way I can write it:
Probability = 1-0.9

Originally Posted by Kerling

Well, whatever the odds. The probability of you appearing about a millimeter next to where you are standing now is about 1 in 10^34. Considering the quadratic increase, and that you are a million lightyears away (that is 34+6+30( should put your odds at aroung 1 in 10^70. And that is in an empty universe with, just you.
Not really happening. There is a reason why in the hitchhikers guide the machine is called the 'infinite' probability engine.

Of course this will vary greatly with size, so would you happen to know the probability of a single electron moving?

Originally Posted by Devon Keogh

If possible, in decimal form, could anyone please tell me the probability of a person disappearing and reappearing in another universe/area inside same universe etc, as Quantum mechanics denotes?

PS: I can not find on the internet.

First of all other universes are only hypothetical. In the other-worlds interpretation of QM, it is a minority opinion. There is no consensus math to calculate such an event. For pure speculation I would say that other universes in other dimensions might by a 100,000 to 1 bet. Other universes separated by vast amounts of space in our same dimensions might only be a 1000 to 1 bet.

Going between dimensions or universes through some portal, I'll put the odds also at 100,000 to 1. That's my quick guesses. The odds for it spontaneously happening at any given moment, as you explained, odds of 1 in 10⁷⁰ as Kerling suggested, sounds as good an "educated guess" as any to me If you are a huge fan of most all science fiction then divide all the odds by 100, if not then multiply them by 10⁶ .

Originally Posted by Devon Keogh

Of course this will vary greatly with size, so would you happen to know the probability of a single electron moving?

This would be much higher. But is is very much dependent of how, and with what it interacts. if it is unobserved for a longer period of time. Then it might be possible. But at such engineering it would be more aptly called teleportation.

According to my calculation based on previous posts on this thread, the possibility of one human on earth disappearing and reappearing 1mm away is a 0.0000000000000000000000000074% chance.

You can think of this as quantum tunnelling through a potential barrier. The exact analytical treatment is rather cumbersome, but to good approximation the tunnelling probability decreases exponentially with increasing barrier width. For a barrier width substantially larger than the de Broglie wavelength of the particle/object in question, that probability rapidly becomes so small as to be virtually vanishing....but of course it never becomes exactly zero, so there is always some chance that you might wake up with half of your body embedded in a wall *shudder*.

Originally Posted by Markus Hanke

so there is always some chance that you might wake up with half of your body embedded in a wall *shudder*.

Especially if you have been at the Amontillado.

Hehe, I tell this to people all the time and they dont believe me. It is actually a pretty funny phenomenon.

Originally Posted by Devon Keogh

Hehe, I tell this to people all the time and they dont believe me. It is actually a pretty funny phenomenon.

Not if you're the one being embedded in the wall, it isn't...
This reminds me of a certain Star Trek:TNG episode, where something along those lines was depicted ( yes, I was a Trekkie once !!!! ). It was actually rather gruesome.

Originally Posted by Markus Hanke

This reminds me of a certain Star Trek:TNG episode, where something along those lines was depicted ( yes, I was a Trekkie once !!!! ). It was actually rather gruesome.

That was the one where Ryker and some Admiral dude went after a Top Secrete Fed cloak, right?
Oh hell, now I made myself look like a Trekkie...

Originally Posted by Kerling

Originally Posted by Devon Keogh

Of course this will vary greatly with size, so would you happen to know the probability of a single electron moving?

This would be much higher. But is is very much dependent of how, and with what it interacts. if it is unobserved for a longer period of time. Then it might be possible. But at such engineering it would be more aptly called teleportation.

Excsrpt from the link above.

BRIAN GREENE: Star Trek has always made beaming, or teleporting, look pretty convenient. It seems like pure science fiction, but could entanglement make it possible?

Remarkably, tests are already underway, here on the Canary Islands, off the coast of Africa.

ANTON ZEILINGER (University of Vienna): We do the experiments here, on the Canary Islands, because you have two observatories. And, after all, it's a nice environment.

BRIAN GREENE: Anton Zeilinger is a long way from teleporting himself or any other human. But he is trying to use quantum entanglement to teleport tiny individual particles, in this case, photons, particles of light.

He starts by generating a pair of entangled photons in a lab on the island of La Palma. One entangled photon stays on La Palma, while the other is sent by laser-guided telescope to the island of Tenerife, 89 miles away.

Next, Zeilinger brings in a third photon, the one he wants to teleport, and has it interact with the entangled photon on La Palma.

The team studies the interaction, comparing the quantum states of the two particles. And here's the amazing part. Because of spooky action, the team is able to use that comparison to transform the entangled photon on the distant island into an identical copy of that third photon.

It will be as if the third photon has teleported across the sea, without traversing the space between the islands.

ANTON ZEILINGER: We, sort of, extract the information carried by the original and make a new original there.

BRIAN GREENE: Using this technique, Zeilinger has successfully teleported dozens of particles. But could this go even further?

Since we're made of particles, could this process make human teleportation possible one day?

ATTENDANT: Welcome to New York City.

BRIAN GREENE: Let's say I want to get to Paris for a quick lunch. Well, in theory, entanglement might someday make that possible. Here's what I'd need. A chamber or particles here in New York that's entangled with another chamber of particles in Paris.

ATTENDANT: Right this way, Mr. Greene.

BRIAN GREENE: I would step into a pod that acts sort of like a scanner or fax machine. While the device scans the huge number of particles in my body—more particles than there are stars in the observable universe—it's jointly scanning the particles in the other chamber. And it creates a list that compares the quantum state of the two sets of particles. And here's where entanglement comes in. Because of spooky action at a distance, that list also reveals how the original state of my particles is related to the state of the particles in Paris.

Next, the operator sends that list to Paris. There they use the data to reconstruct the exact quantum state of every single one of my particles.

And a new me materializes.

It's not that the particles traveled from New York to Paris. It's that entanglement allows my quantum state to be extracted in New York and reconstituted in Paris, down to the last particle.

ATTENDANT: Bonjour, Monsieur Greene.

BRIAN GREENE: Hi, there.

So, here I am in Paris, an exact replica of myself. And I'd better be, because measuring the quantum states of all my particles in New York has destroyed the original me.

EDWARD FARHI: It is absolutely required in the quantum teleportation protocol that the thing that is teleported is destroyed in the process. And you know, that does make you a little anxious.

I guess you would just end up being a lump of neutrons, protons and electrons. You wouldn't look too good.

BRIAN GREENE: Now, we are a long way from human teleportation today, but the possibility raises a question: is the Brian Greene who arrives in Paris really me?

Well, there should be no difference between the old me in New York and the new me, here in Paris. And the reason is that, according to quantum mechanics, it's not the physical particles that make me me, it's the information those particles contain. And that information has been teleported exactly, for all the trillions of trillions of particles that make up my body.

ANTON ZEILINGER: It is a very deep philosophical question, whether what arrives at the receiving station is the original or not. My position is that, by "original" we mean something which has all the properties of the original. And if this is the case, then it is the original.

JOHN CLAUSER: I wouldn't step into that machine.

BRIAN GREENE: Whether or not human teleportation ever becomes a reality, the fuzzy uncertainty of quantum mechanics has all sorts of other potential applications

Originally Posted by Neverfly

That was the one where Ryker and some Admiral dude went after a Top Secrete Fed cloak, right?
Oh hell, now I made myself look like a Trekkie...

I can't really remember, this was like early 90s ??

Originally Posted by Markus Hanke

I can't really remember,

I don't either...

My understanding from watching this was that using heisenberg's uncertainty principle the more accurately we could measure the particles orginal positions the more prone they were to moving, meaning that if we could measure the postions really really accurately then we could significantely increase the probability that they will move about.