So I guess I get how this works in theory, but in practice, doesn’t a particle going from A-B have SOME kind of effect that is different than if it went from B-C, even without the sensitive thingy? I don’t know if it would be from bouncing off other particles on the way, or having some kind of minute gravitational effect on the rest of the universe, or what. And if that is the case, shouldn’t the experiments always behave the as if there WERE that sensitive thingy there? Or is it really possible to set it up so there is literally NO difference in all the particle positions in the universe no matter which path is taken?
One of the previous comments (I think in the previous post) pointed out that yes, indeed this does occur—but that these effects mainly cancel each other out.
In my mind this works somewhat like Brownian motion: lots of tiny pushes, but overall, it continues in roughly the same way. ie, mostly the photon carries on as though it hasn’t changed configuration space in any significant way.
So I guess I get how this works in theory, but in practice, doesn’t a particle going from A-B have SOME kind of effect that is different than if it went from B-C, even without the sensitive thingy? I don’t know if it would be from bouncing off other particles on the way, or having some kind of minute gravitational effect on the rest of the universe, or what. And if that is the case, shouldn’t the experiments always behave the as if there WERE that sensitive thingy there? Or is it really possible to set it up so there is literally NO difference in all the particle positions in the universe no matter which path is taken?
One of the previous comments (I think in the previous post) pointed out that yes, indeed this does occur—but that these effects mainly cancel each other out.
In my mind this works somewhat like Brownian motion: lots of tiny pushes, but overall, it continues in roughly the same way. ie, mostly the photon carries on as though it hasn’t changed configuration space in any significant way.