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 Originally Posted by Eric
Just picked up Einstein by Walter Isaacson. I know he didn't like some things about quantum physics - will probably have some questions related to the book at some point.
Can you explain in 100 words or less why we can't use quantum entanglement for faster-than-light-speed communication?
Simply put, the entanglement is too sensitive to alter without first observing. The act of observing one particle from an entangled pair collapses the entangled wave function, dis-entangling them. Any change made after than will not have any consequences on the other particle.
Bear in mind that by 'observation' I mean any interaction with anything.
Note that wave function collapse is a poorly understood phenomenon on very small time scales. As in... it seems like a sudden, discontinuous change, but if we could watch it in slow motion, then maybe we would understand it better. As far as I know, there is no mathematical description of the collapse.
To my knowledge, there is no way to alter the entangled wave function without first collapsing it into a non-entangled group of waves.
So the information carried by the entangled partner is "chosen" by the observation, and can not then be changed.
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