Why does observing a quantum particle immediately collapse its wave function?

It's a silly explanation for it doesn't take into consideration if the observer has unibrow!!!

She included the qualifier "directly" measure. Indirect measurements, to the extent they are possible, would not have the same effect.

Terrible explanation……..here’s a better one. In order to “observe” a quantum particle, you have to do something to it. You either have it crash into a detector screen, or you shoot energy at it and observe for changes, or some other form of disruption. The act of “detection” or “observation” itself means you have to interfere with the previous state of the particle and cause a change.

If only you could sneak up on it.

Well get around this

It KNOWS!!!

Because energy/information has still transferred between different states.
Any method used to 'observe/measure' anything at the quantum level still causes interference and are thus not discrete at all.

That's how I envision it anyway 🤷‍♂️

oh dear!

The explanation I like is about information. So a quantum system has to provide information when measured, and it can only give "classical information", and for some reason once it has answered a question it is kinda bound by the answer it previously gave.

Wave function and collapsing is just one way to try to explain the behavior of quantum particles. No one can guarantee that particles really behave like that. It is only one of the possible representations that suits us.

That explanation needs explanation😂

The straight forward answer: To detect a particle, we shoot another particle at it and measure how it's properties change when it comes back to the detector. The interaction (through forces not collision) between the 2 particles determines/affects their positions, momentum and states (due to energy conservation). A particle is a wave function by default (since there are no interactions, fixed points or fixed dimensions in an ever-fluctuating spacetime continuum). It only becomes a particle when something interacts with it and changes it to a point like particle. If its still "confusing" as claimed, I'm more than happy to provide more details.

Yulia is soooo cute 😊

Can I say it may have something to do with the fact the we ourselves are made up of partical and it may have something to do with our particals interacting with wild particals, if observing the particals acts as a platform sort to speak, these particals are not observed on a regular. It could be qutun physics can also be connected thru the power of consciousness

do Quantum Non-Demolition (QND) measurements!

I like your answer thank you!

I really love your shorts
Please keep making them

When the observer becomes observed. 👀👀👀

a person trying to explain something she never fully undersdtood! Shameful.

There's no reason for this.
It's like trying to find why light has constant speed.

I don't think anyone knows the answer to that question. A wave function is just a mathematical representation of where you can expect to find a particle. Once you have the particle a 3d vector is enough to describe its precise location. Why would you use a wave function to predict its location if you know where it is? Nothing collapsed, you just don't need to predict its location anymore. This "wave" is not anything real, it can't collapse because there is nothing to collapse. The particle was always going to be found in a single location.

The alien race that is controlling our simulated reality doesn't like to be observed 🤔

When you shine a (bright) light on the thing you are trying to measure
the momentum of the photon(s) will impact what you are trying to measure...

The particle doesn’t “know” you observe it. It changes when it is interacted with whether observation or just a random interaction from ANYTHING.
The act of observation introduces some form of energy (like seeing something requires light energy ) and that new energy changes the particles energy.

Arrogant word salad and a technically wrong answer. The real short answer is "we have no stinking idea". No one is even close to answering this question and it's outrageous that she pretends she has an answer.

In a nut shell it's like taking a snap shot. The second you measure it you have "frozen" the particle in the exact moment of the time of the measurement.

In other words were clueless as to why particles seem to behave differently when observed. Becoming " part of the system " means s and is an egotistcal attempt at wanting to appear to know why. None of the brightest physicist on Earth no why. And this is just the beginning of the baffling nature of quantum physics there are many more experiments that will blow your mind because it seems that particles can predict the future too

Terminology. When physicists say "observation", hear "measurement", or, better, "interaction". No conscious observer is necessary. It's a shame that Yulia didn't make that explicit. She heard "observation" and immediately just started talking about "measurement" - fine for other physicists but unfortunately squandered an opportunity to educate.

I think the descriptors "observing" and "observer" may be where I and maybe many stumble upon. Yulia captured a clarifying thought when sharing that due to the influence of tools used for measuring a quantum particle, the tools themselves become a part of the system. A new system emerges due to the effect(s) of the measuring process(es)/tools. The world of the extremely tiny may require new measuring tools and/or processes which have little to no effect on what it is that is being measured. That will be a difficult task.

Omg... clowns leading clowns

The real Schrodinger's cat.

The measurement is made via an INTERACTION. Throw a photon at an atom, see how it responds. By doing this, the wave function (a math function) that describes it changes.

As usual, terminology is important.
As well as communicating in a precise, and clear manner.

"Observe" does not mean standing back and watching with your eyes, especially when it concerns the quantum scale.
An instrument, or a detector is needed to observe the very, very, small quantum states/events/phenomena.
Different phenomena require different instruments, and it is the instrument that necessarily interfers with what is being measured/observed/detected.

Example: Determining the position or velocity of an electron, or other subatomic particle, would require light to be reflected off it. The interaction of a photon, in the act of measurement ("observation"), necessarily alters the position/velocity of the particle.

Similarly, when people talk about a wave function collapse, that means when the wave has met with matter (generally), which collapses the wave function. Measuring say, a light wave, requires that that light wave impacts the detector.

I see many attempts in the comments to try and describe the "observer effect", but, like this video, the meaning gets distorted in the the translation of scientifically precise terminology, to our colloquial, general language. This results in both someone misunderstanding what they are trying to explain, and, when someone miscommunicates to us what they do understand.

And, what makes things even harder for us to understand, scientists should not be allowed to name things! 😁
(that was a joke, for those that are sarcasm challenged)

Then whats so mysterious about quantum physics? Seems pretty simple and obvious to me when its explained correctly like this. Couldnt we then just measure what our observation or "interaction" would end up being and then just naturally add that to what we really want to observe?

Get this: You cannot measure mass at any scale without accelerating it!

It has everything to do with the wave - particle duality. You can localize the particle but the wave is always moving at c. Nor do we get momentum from massless particles, it comes from the wave property. This is the same wave function that could come from the Sun in eight and a half minutes.

ok , see you tomorrow.

How do you know a surfer is riding a wave, he is interacting with it. It’s not that confusing. What you call a particle is an interaction, or detection of the wave.

That's a common misconception. There is no "collapse". Instead the wave is absorbed by the target particle and if the target particle absorbs enough of the wave at a certain frequency then you can observe it. But even then, observing that absorption doesn't have anything to do with the state of the wave. Observation is an emergent phenomenon.

Let's imagine, you have a very fast rotating fan with 1 blade rotating in 3d to form a spherical rotation path. And that you put your finger at any point on the sphere, the blade will meet you there. So you collapse the blade probability wave function into a definite position. Maybe all energy/information/particle are kinda jiggling or 3d rotating with a radius that of the probability wave height. Before you poke your finger on or within the blade's rotation path, the blade can be considered to be everywhere on the path. Interacting/measuring/poking your finger into the 3d rotating blade at any point of it's path - probability wave function, you can rest assured that you will collapse the blade in a definite state of finding your finger. We are not necessarily seeing a probability wave but a fuzzy rotation path of the thing we are trying to measure

Another way of saying “no one knows”

That made a lot of sense actually

Well that is an unanswered question as to why exactly it has to collapse. Our theory only says that it does due to observation. But the details of this collapse and the mechanism for it are unknown still.

If u try to predict where a tornado will go depending on its speed and direction you can only predict with a similar level of certainty where it will be detected at a future time. In quantum physics they are tiny spherical vortexes not particles. Moving inside a lattice made of Planck sized elastic tubes/strings. That's how EMR moves, through quamtum wires.
When trying to get particle physicists to understand the wave equation is describing a wave detected at single points not a particle, it's like talking to high tech voodoo madmen, they say energy is a particle but has a wave function which isn't actually a wave! it's like particle physicists seeing people in a boat and saying "Oh look those people are moving mysteriously across the water" then we say "no but they're in a boat" to which they say "no there's no boat that's just a boat function that gives the illusion of a boat, we build nuclear bombs, computers to give corporations more control over everything and everyone, we control all physics taught in Universities and peer review journals, we have ai controlling drones killing people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and other places with no human 2nd opinion. So trust us we are smarter than you there is no boat, the Universe has no fixed laws at the quantum level, it's not that we can't explain them using the particle model, it's just bizarre and those people move mysteriously across the water in a boat function."
The Theory of Everything has been around for 5 years with 2 math proofs to Goldbachs conjecture and proof a 2nd loop is impossible in the Collatz Conjecture but the Big bang particle industry have kept it suppressed time and time again, with hysterical particle physicists unable to bear to look or listen to any evidence that for a split second says they are wrong, who keep taking down this guys channel, and refusing to acknowledge his math proofs it's looking more like more doom every day for humanity, the TOE and experiments to prove it are on channel "Breaking physics (beyond the SMOPP)" most experiments and the 2 math proofs are in 1 minute shorts.
There is no collapse there is only a change of focus on the wave, what changes the focus is the real mystery but this channel has experiments to test for what it is.

Correct that means collapse of wave function create consciousness….Eg chess or any games….. meditation is another example…

An elaborate way of saying: "I don't know, and no human ever will."

They dont know

Very thankful for this channel.

so basically observing it changes its future

She didn't really answer the question. She just kicked the can down the road. How does the system know we are observing?