I've been musing over the following and would appreciate some comments:
Suppose I have two identical baseballs. I mark one with a black dot.
I use two ball launchers to put them on a collision course with each
other. The marked ball is in the left launcher, the unmarked ball in
the right launcher. I tell you everything about the launch speeds,
angles, positions, etc. They collide behind a barrier that I can't
see around. But then they reappear, one to the left and to the right
after the collision behind the barrier. The game is to predict which
baseball has the black dot on it and then go look at the two balls
and see if you're right.
I think we agree that you can always win this game.
Now repeat this experiment with two identical atoms. Under what
circumstances (if any) can I still win this game? No fair setting the
launchers so that the atoms don't actually collide and just pass each
other by a large distance.
In addition to open comments, any references (on the web or on paper)
to where this kind of idea is described would also be appreciated.
-Carl
ps: I have no idea how to put a black dot on an atom. If you think
that is a key element in answering the question, please explain.
pps: If you think you never can win with atoms, would it help if I
instead used something bigger like a buckyball? If not, how big do I
need to make my two "balls"? I'm guessing a fair place to start would
be to compare h/p to R, where p is the momentum of a ball and R is
its radius....
--
Carl E Mungan, Assoc Prof of Physics 410-293-6680 (O) -3729 (F)
Naval Academy Stop 9c, 572C Holloway Rd, Annapolis MD 21402-1363 mailto:mungan@usna.eduhttp://usna.edu/Users/physics/mungan/