Fact Of The Month: Quantum Entanglement Was Proposed In 1935, In The EPR Paradox

Fact of the month: Quantum entanglement was proposed in 1935, in the EPR (Einstein, Podolsky, Rosen) paradox.

Quantum entanglement is one of my favourite phenomenons. Quantum entanglement is basically when one particle in a pair of 'entangled' particles changes its quantum state. This may not seem very significant in a stand-alone statement, but it is really quite fascinating when you know some of the basics about photons and various aspects of quantum mechanics.
The idea of faster than light communication between entangled particles was considered to make no sense by Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky, and Nathan Rosen, as the speed of light (299,792,458 m/s) was considered to be the highest speed possible to achieve. Even newly discovered gravitational waves travel at the speed of light (it takes light 8 minutes for light to travel to Earth from the sun, so if the sun was suddenly taken out of its position, the Earth would not change it orbit until 8 minutes after the sun was moved). Quantum entanglement means that if you measure the spin of one entangled particle, you can immediately assume the spin of the other entangled particle, even if it was on the other side of the universe.
Particles can get entangled when an atomic nucleus splits into two (smaller) identical ones, and if the original nucleus was stationary, the two new particles (or nuclei) will have equal and opposite angular and linear momentum, and the other various properties of the particles become entangled.
Quantum entanglement has a very practical use. Because changing the properties of one entangled particle immediately changes the properties of  the other, this can be used to transmit data faster then the speed of light. This is a major component of quantum computers, which scientists are currently researching, which are (on paper) much more powerful then standard computers, but are incredibly difficult to create.

(below) A diagram of quantum entanglement.
By J-Wiki at English Wikipedia - Entirely self-generated using computer graphics applications., GFDL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16525357


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