QUOTE (Banaticus @ May 24 2010, 10:32 PM)
So, what's this quantum entanglement entail? It's not 1's and 0's that spell out "cat", it's actual live and dead cats?
Why can't this "quantum information" be used to send real information?
You entangle* two particles such that they both have the same
quantum state. That is, their spin.
Then as you change one, the other changes in the same manner.
It's really hard to explain, even by physicists. Mainly because what causes it
can't be observed (attempting to do so causes the experiment to fail).
Good movie to watch, "What the Bleep Do We Know!?: Down the Rabbit Hole"
*The way this is done is by creating a projection of particles (protons -> light) and separating out each particle based on its spin. The "Clockwise" particles are attracted in one direction, the "Counterclockwise" in another. Each of the two fields will have a the same spin as every other particle in that field and the
opposite spin from the particles in the other field. By clever manipulation of where these fields overlap, you can create areas where
any given particle has a spin different from
every other particle.
Its one of those weird "measure it and it changes" things.