this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2024
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Science Memes

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[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That's a pretty misleading explanation. You're not applying any force to the system by observing it.

[โ€“] cynar 4 points 2 months ago

Depends on how you are observing it photons impart energy and momentum. The true, detailed explanation is a lot more convoluted, it's all wave interactions, in the complex plane. However, digesting that into something a layman can follow is difficult.

The main point I was trying to get across is that there is no such thing as an independent, external measurement. Your measurement systems minimum interaction is no longer negligible. How that is done varies, but it always changes the target and becomes part of the equations.