Forum Issue

Creative Analogy

By making use of analogies you can boost your creative abilities, and generate more ideas and more solutions.

Sometimes, if you choose really strange analogies, this can super-charge the creative process. So here is a really strange analogy . . .

Quantum Mechanics Intro

Quantum Mechanics is a subset of Physics: a pure science which uses a rigorous process to ensure that its theories are proven by experimental observations. In other words, although the following sounds bizarre it has been scientifically verified. [Even many physicists find that it goes against common sense, but they accept it as being a fact.]

Quantum Mechanics deals with what happens on the small scale (e.g. molecules, atoms, sub-atomic particles and photons). The following highlights some of the strange phenomena that have been observed.

Quantum Mechanics [1]

1	Particle - Wave Duality	Particles also have the properties of waves; and waves also have the properties of particles! We traditionally visualise sub-atomic particles, such as electrons and protons, as being particles. For example, it was assumed that they have a well defined shape and size. However, such "particles" also behave as waves, which have quite different characteristics to those of particles! Electromagnetic radiation (e.g. light, ultra-violet, radio waves) is traditionally thought of as waves, yet it also has the characteristics of particles. A particle of light has a finite amount of energy, and it is called a photon.	To apply this fact as a creative analogy, try thinking of the objects in your chosen scenario as consisting of at least two radically different characteristics at the same time.
2	Probability? Probably	If you put a particle in a container then it may be in the container, but then again there is a probability that it is not in the container! This can be true even if the particle does not have enough energy, in the traditional sense, to climb over the walls of the container or smash though the wall!	Just imagine: even the apparently impossible, may actually be possible!

If you think the above is just theoretical or fictional then you would be wrong, very wrong. Technologies are in use today that make use of quantum mechanical effects, and these devices are not just on the microscopic scale; some are the size of everyday objects.

If you would like more on this topic, in another forum issue, just say so . . .