- #1
nomadreid
Gold Member
- 1,677
- 210
This is undoubtedly one of the more basic (not to say stupid) questions ever to appear in this rubric. But here goes:
Suppose you have v= 0.6|0> + 0.8|1>. This means that there is 36% chance of measuring |0> and 64% chance of measuring |1>. Otherwise put, given a million particles in this state, around 360 thousand will be measured as |0> and around 640 thousand will be measured as |1>. So far so good.
Now, however, I am attempting to visualize the particle as containing a collection of |0>'s and |1>'s, so that upon measurement, one of these will be selected. From the above, it would then seem that, if the total number were taken to be a million, this visualization would be 360 thousand |0>'s and 640 thousand |1>'s. On the other hand, it would seem that the original statement that v= 0.6|0> + 0.8|1> would indicate that out of 1.4 million, there would be 600 thousand |0>'s and 800 |1>'s. This is obviously wrong, but why?
Suppose you have v= 0.6|0> + 0.8|1>. This means that there is 36% chance of measuring |0> and 64% chance of measuring |1>. Otherwise put, given a million particles in this state, around 360 thousand will be measured as |0> and around 640 thousand will be measured as |1>. So far so good.
Now, however, I am attempting to visualize the particle as containing a collection of |0>'s and |1>'s, so that upon measurement, one of these will be selected. From the above, it would then seem that, if the total number were taken to be a million, this visualization would be 360 thousand |0>'s and 640 thousand |1>'s. On the other hand, it would seem that the original statement that v= 0.6|0> + 0.8|1> would indicate that out of 1.4 million, there would be 600 thousand |0>'s and 800 |1>'s. This is obviously wrong, but why?