Quote:
Originally posted by MolsonInBothHands@Aug 19 2004, 12:28 PM
I am still trying to wrap my head around determining the state of one particle by observing its entangled partner. I seem to remember hearing in high school physics about a particle in a box, and you would change its behavior simply by observing it. Can't remember exactly how that story goes, but this sounds familiar.
What exactly is passed between the two particles when one is observed? Can you lie about your observations and convince the contrary particle to go the other way, like some kind of reverse quantum psychology? 
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You're probably thinking about Schrodinger's Cat..
There's a box with a cat in it and the lid is closed. Inside the box is a radiation source that gives a particle of radiation maybe once an hour, and a radiation detector hooked up to a device that releases poison if a particle of radiation is detected.
After an hour, while the box is closed, the system is in a state of quantum superposition of both a live cat with no poison released, and a dead cat with poison released. The cat is both 100% alive and 100% dead until observed. The observation causes the system collapses into a single state.
As for what's passed between the particles, nothing.. if it was anything it would be limited by the speed of light and the entanglement wouldn't be instant.. it's a quality of quantum mechanics, a result of the multi-dimensional fabric of vibrating strings that create our space-time.
If you mean what's passed over the microwaves in this case, I'm not sure what would be but it wouldn't be anything meaningfull to an observer.. i.e. you couldn't reproduce it to create multiple copies of the particle. I wouldn't mind seeing the full article in Nature for more details about that part.