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Credit image: Ruben Alexander / Flickr CC BY 2.0
It's a time when it has been in existence since the dawn of time Which came first: the chicken or the egg? Some smart alecks have been tried to answer the question by throwing in pterodactyls or other non-chickens, but that's like using Spock or volcano in a game of roshambo. According to USA TodayWe are here to answer the questions of quantum physics, but it is probably going to piss off everyone on both sides of the debate.
So the answer to the question "What came first" would be both. Or neither? It depends on how you look at it. The University of Queensland researcher Jacqui Romero. In an experiment, Romero and other English and Australian physicists used a device called a photonic quantum switch to demonstrate indefinite causal order. It turns out that in quantum mechanics the rules of things happening in sequence (this-then-that) do not apply. Photons in a ray were given two paths: if vertically polarized, the photons would take the right path and then come back to the right path, if horizontally polarized it would be the opposite. By polarizing the photons from both directions (horizontally), the researchers caused the quantum wave "When the photon repeats the trip, it again takes both paths, with the photon's quantum wave takes each path only once," Science Mag explanation further. "It is thus impossible to say in which order the photon has taken the path."
In the same way, it is almost impossible to over-simplify of what the scientists show in their study, two things can cause each other to occur at the same time. That is a little hard to swallow since it is a very important fact of our lives. The next time someone asks you the question, just say to yourself and walk away.
Cover image credit: Ruben Alexander / Flickr CC BY 2.0
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