Laws of physics are probabilistic
Consider shining monochromatic light, polarized at 45o, at a Polaroid filter oriented at 0o
- Half the light passes through
- Polarized in the 0o direction
- Monochromatic light comprises indistinguishable photons
- Half the photons pass through
Classically this makes no sense
- If the photons are all identical, then either they all pass or they don’t
…enter quantum mechanics
- Each photon has a probability 1/2 of passing through the filter