The following questions are addressed in this chapter. They are better discussed in a group to allow a variety of opinions to emerge. The relevant section link is given after each question:
1. Why is light a mystery? (QR3.1.1)
2. Is light made of waves, particles, or both? (QR3.1.2)
3. In Young’s experiment, does a photon go through both slits or just one? Give reasons. (QR3.1.3)
4. What is the problem with Bohr’s Copenhagen dualism? (QR3.1.4)
5. Why is quantum mechanics a Pinocchio theory? (QR3.1.5)
6. How do we know that light is a wave? (QR3.2.1)
7. How might physics change if we are three-dimensional Flatlanders? (QR3.2.2)
8. Is a photon a perpetual-motion machine? (QR3.2.3)
9. Why is the speed of light really the speed of space? (QR3.2.4)
10. What do X-rays, visible light, and radio waves have in common? (QR3.3.1)
11. Why does energy come in Planck units? Why does light come in photon units? (QR3.3.2)
12. Why does Planck’s constant also define the size of our space? (QR3.3.3)
13. If a quantum wave is a processing wave, how does it spread? (QR3.4.2)
14. Does a photon have a quantum wave? (QR3.4.3)
15. Will hidden variables ever explain why photons hit a screen at random points? (QR3.5.1)
18. Is a photon a wave, a particle, or both? If both, how can that be? (QR3.5.2)
19.How can a quantum wave collapse instantly to a point, regardless of its spatial extent? (QR3.5.2)
20. Why does a photon wave always deliver all its energy instantly at a point? (QR3.5.2)
21. How can a photon go through both Young’s slits but still hit the screen at a point? (QR3.5.3)
22. Why does a photon’s probability of existence depend on its quantum wave power at that point? (QR3.5.3)
23. What causes quantum randomness? (QR3.5.3)
24. Why can’t physics explain how light always finds the shortest path? (QR3.6.2)
25. How does a photon always find the shortest path to any destination? (QR3.6.3)
26. Why is a photon’s spin on any axis always the same? (QR3.7.1)
27. Why does a filter that blocks horizontally polarized light not block vertically polarized light? (QR3.7.2)
28. How can a photon of polarized light pass entirely though a filter nearly that blocks most of it? (QR3.7.3)
29. How can physically incompatible quantum states occur at the same time, i.e. superpose? (QR3.8.1)
30. Can Schrödinger’s cat be both alive and dead? Explain. (QR3.8.2)
31. According to quantum theory, observation creates physical reality, so is life just a dream? (QR3.8.2)
32. Does the delayed choice two-slit experiment prove that time can flow backwards? (QR3.8.3)
33. How can a photon choose the physical path it took to reach a detector after it arrives? (QR3.8.3)
34. How can a photon of light detect an object on a path it didn’t travel? Is this physically possible? (QR3.8.4)
35. How do entangled photons instantly affect each other faster than the speed of light? (QR3.8.5)
36. Is the physical world distinguishable from a hologram? Why does quantum realism require it to be so? (QR3.8.6)
37. If there no evidence for the multiverse, why do so many physicists accept it? (QR3.9.1)
38. What is the long-sought boundary between the quantum world and the physical world? (QR3.9.2)
39. What is the quantum paradox? How has physics handled it? (QR3.9.3)
40. How does quantum realism resolve the quantum paradox? (QR3.9.4)
41. If quantum entities exist mostly in an unmeasured state, what makes this state “unreal”? (QR3.9.5)
42. Does quantum theory describe unreality or reality? Give reasons. (QR3.9.6)