stared / quantum-game

Quantum Game (old version) - a puzzle game with real quantum mechanics in a browser
http://v2016.quantumgame.io/
MIT License
343 stars 42 forks source link

There is nothing quantum in the gameplay #19

Open patrakov opened 5 years ago

patrakov commented 5 years ago

An essential component of quantum mechanics is particle-wave dualism, or collapse. However, there is nothing in the gameplay that exploits it. Sure, probabilities are displayed and taken into account at the end when displaying which detector has worked, which bomb has exploded, or what else has absorved the photon, but this information is irrelevant to the gameplay, because it does not affect the outcome, i.e. whether the level is solved. The game is thus about light intensity, polarization and phase, not individual photons.

patrakov commented 5 years ago

Another "unrealistic/non-quantum" issue that I find with the game is that the wave function is observable. So maybe let's combine the two ideas, and implement a new type of challenge:

There is a new kind of building block, which is something of "unknown" type (e.g. one of a few known types, vacuum jar vs glass, or maybe even nothing), or unknown orientation where this applies. It can probably be rotated by clicking if applicable, too. There might be some restrictions where it is allowed to place the unknown block. When this block is on the screen, the wave function is not traced, and the only available information is from photon detectors. The game could challenge the player to guess what's this, or to orient it properly, and check whether they indeed did the experiments that would allow them to arrive at such conclusion.