Explain to elementary school students what quantum entanglement is

Mondo Science Updated on 2024-01-31

Quantum entanglement is a wonderful phenomenon that makes two or more small things, such as photons or electrons, very close, like good friends. These little things have some characteristics, such as color, shape, orientation, etc., and we can use some tools to see their characteristics. However, if they are good friends, then their characteristics will influence each other, as if they were in the heart. For example, if the color of a small thing is red, then the color of its best friend will be green;If the shape of a small thing is round, then the shape of its good friend will be square;If the direction of a small thing is up, then the direction of its good friend will be down, and so on. The characteristics of these little things are random, we can't ** what they will be, we can only know what they are when we look at them with a tool.

The magic of quantum entanglement is that the best friends of these little things can be far apart, even in different places, such as one in Beijing, one in Paris, or one on Earth and one on the Moon. However, when we use a tool to see the characteristics of one of the little things, its good friend will immediately know and change its characteristics to keep it the opposite of its good friend. The change is very fast, faster than light, as if there is an invisible thread connecting them together. However, this change cannot be used to convey information, because we cannot control the characteristics of small things, we can only see their characteristics. Therefore, this change does not violate the laws of nature, nor does it turn back time or distort space.

Quantum entanglement is a difficult phenomenon to understand, and it doesn't have anything like it in our daily lives. Quantum entanglement is an important concept in quantum mechanics, the branch of physics that studies the microscopic world. Quantum entanglement allows us to understand the nature and interaction of many small things, and also allows us to invent many new technologies, such as quantum communication, quantum computing, etc.

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