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Comment by hi41 | Hacker News Reader

Since the molecule of 2000 atoms exists in two places, it doubles the mass. Doesn’t this break the law of conservation of mass and energy. Can someone please explain how this is possible.

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From a quantummechanic standpoint its wrong to say, that its at two places at once. I really dont like the Headline. Superposition means, that it didnt decide for one of the two possible states, and so these both exist in superposition.

Can you say it’s moving between two places with an infinite frequency?

My own understanding of QM at this point is that it's sort of wrong to think of anything being exactly anywhere, ever.

The way I intuit it, QM systems seem to be described by their wavefunctions sort of the same way a bunch of sine waves together makes music. You could have a QM system that is spatially (mostly) at X, represented by a wave function, or at Y, represented by another, but the third option, a superposition, is the combination of those two wave functions.

No not really, only when you observe the particle, the location is determined. ANd at this point it behaves like a localised single particle.

It’s probably more accurate to say that the wave function that describes the probability of it being in any location is spread between two places.

As long as we know how the universe works it's perfectly possible that the molecule is steady and all those places go to visit it at once. Recursively apply to its components. When we'll really know how it works we'll be able to do wonders.

Please see my other comment in this thread, especially the part about "occupying space"---the issue is exactly the same with mass.

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