full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Aaron O'Connell: Making sense of a visible quantum object

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Here, let me give you an analogy. You know how uncomfortable it is to be in a crowded elevator? I mean, when I'm in an elevator all alone, I do all sorts of weird things, but then other people get on board and I stop doing those things because I don't want to bother them, or, frankly, scare them. So quantum mechanics says that inanimate objects feel the same way. The fellow passengers for inanimate otcebjs are not just people, but it's also the light shining on it and the wind boiwlng past it and the heat of the room. And so we knew, if we wanted to see this piece of mteal behave quantum mlchaeailncy, we're going to have to kick out all the other psaesgerns.

Open Cloze

Here, let me give you an analogy. You know how uncomfortable it is to be in a crowded elevator? I mean, when I'm in an elevator all alone, I do all sorts of weird things, but then other people get on board and I stop doing those things because I don't want to bother them, or, frankly, scare them. So quantum mechanics says that inanimate objects feel the same way. The fellow passengers for inanimate _______ are not just people, but it's also the light shining on it and the wind _______ past it and the heat of the room. And so we knew, if we wanted to see this piece of _____ behave quantum ____________, we're going to have to kick out all the other __________.

Solution

  1. metal
  2. objects
  3. passengers
  4. mechanically
  5. blowing

Original Text

Here, let me give you an analogy. You know how uncomfortable it is to be in a crowded elevator? I mean, when I'm in an elevator all alone, I do all sorts of weird things, but then other people get on board and I stop doing those things because I don't want to bother them, or, frankly, scare them. So quantum mechanics says that inanimate objects feel the same way. The fellow passengers for inanimate objects are not just people, but it's also the light shining on it and the wind blowing past it and the heat of the room. And so we knew, if we wanted to see this piece of metal behave quantum mechanically, we're going to have to kick out all the other passengers.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
quantum mechanics 7
good deal 2
car stop 2
logical side 2
follow quantum 2
computer chip 2
clean room 2
inanimate objects 2
single atom 2

Important Words

  1. analogy
  2. behave
  3. blowing
  4. board
  5. bother
  6. crowded
  7. elevator
  8. feel
  9. fellow
  10. frankly
  11. give
  12. heat
  13. inanimate
  14. kick
  15. knew
  16. light
  17. mechanically
  18. mechanics
  19. metal
  20. objects
  21. passengers
  22. people
  23. piece
  24. quantum
  25. room
  26. scare
  27. shining
  28. sorts
  29. stop
  30. uncomfortable
  31. wanted
  32. weird
  33. wind