There is something in the teaching of quantum theory that drives people mad. It makes them unable to think coherently. A scientist can be going along, making perfect sense, then he gets to Bell’s theorem, and the train of rational thought immediately derails.
This video is the perfect example. The scientist has spent the previous 5 hours (this is the second video in the series) explaining how Einstein was correct about the explanation of quantum theory must be incomplete, because it is nonlocal. And then he explains how Bell was trying to explain Einstein’s argument about nonlocality, and used Bohm’s inherently nonlocal1 Pilot Wave theory to show how tests of quantum spin could show the “inherent” nonlocality of quantum behavior. And that’s how we get to this nonsensical chart. The chart is of tests of spin by entangled (opposite spin) particles tested by both Alice and Bob, who can each set up their detectors to align vertically, or be offset by 60 degrees.
The chart is pure gibberish. Aside from the two central lines, where coin tosses are made for “Alice 0”, and then the opposite result is shown for “Bob 0”, the data in the chart is utterly meaningless. Because the chart is conflating completely separate measurements, and jamming them all together.
You can have the central chart, where both Alice and Bob have their detectors aligned vertically. Their detections will always be opposites - down with up, and up with down. Perfect anti-correlation. This is not because of any “spooky action at a distance.” It is because, from the moment the particles were entangled, they held spin properties that were opposites - 180 degrees out of phase with each other. We don’t know what the baseline phase is, though. That’s the job of the detectors to find out. Which they do in an incredibly crude way - by making each particle go either up or down. It’s like taking a spinner from a child’s game, spinning it, and then declaring that if the pointer lands anywhere between 0 and 179 degrees, it points east, other wise it points west. Are we supposed to be surprised that the opposite end of the spinner points the other direction after each random trial?
The rest of the chart, though… is deliberately deceitful. He took coins, and flipped them, changing 25% of the answers from the “0” case for Alice and Bob. This is because, when misaligned by 60 degrees, detections will disagree from the expected (no offset) values 25% of the time. This is perfectly normal wave behavior, as defined by cos²(θ/2). So what we need is not one chart with four lines, but three separate charts, each with two lines - Alice compared to Bob at A0:B0, A+60:B0, and A0:B-60. (You can do even more charts if you want to turn the detectors the other way, but you’ll get similar results.)
And then we get to the “kill shot”. The scientist explains that at 120 degrees offset, A+60:B-60, the detections will disagree with the predicted (zero offset) values 75% of the time. And yet, his chart says they can only disagree half the time. Proof! Quantum behavior is nonlocal!
Well, no. That’s not what his chart says at all. If it did, it would disprove the very quantum theory that was used to create the chart. What he is saying is literally nonsensical - it makes no sense. Because you can’t make two separate 60 degree offset tests, and combine them to create one 120 degree offset test. That’s not how wave behavior works. A+60 and B-60 have nothing to do with each other! There is no causal correlation between them at all! Should we really be surprised that a naive comparison between them disagrees with well established theory and practice?
To make 120 degree offset tests, you have to hold one detector steady and turn the other one 120 degrees, then make your measurements. Count up the detections, and voila! You will find that 75% of the time, they disagree from perfect anti-correlation. (They’re opposites, after all.)
So, you need two new charts, each of two lines - A0:B-120, and A+120:B0. Once you do that, you’ll find a 75% disagreement. Exactly what basic wave theory predicts, whether the particles somehow “magically” influenced each other instantaneously, or whether the two particles were simply created with opposite properties, which you are now measuring for the first time.
Bell’s theory is logically incoherent. Bell’s inequality proves nothing more than that a cosine wave and a triangle wave are different. Well, duh! Nobody sane claims they are identical in the first place. But then again, those brainwashed and gaslighted by the Copenhagen interpretation can’t quite be said to be truly sane any more, as they must hold logically contradictory “facts” in their minds.
QED
Copenhagen interpretation delenda est!
Huh. I never heard about this part before. You learn something new every day.
