Quantum Coffee

[donutsweeper]

Title:  Quantum Coffee
Pairing/Warning/Rating: none, rated G
Word Count: 100
Summary: Jack and Tosh discuss the act of making coffee
Author's Note: Sequel to Schrödinger's Coffee.  Learn about the observer effect here.  Thanks to smithy161 and phoenix64 for fixing the quantum nature of Jack's problem.

“Tosh, do you know if Ianto’s done making the coffee yet?”

“Why don’t you go and see for yourself, Jack?”

“No, I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“He might make it differently if I was there.”

“Why would he do that?”

“I don’t know if he would, but my being there might affect his coffee-making ability.   And I won’t take that chance.”

“So, we’re talking quantum theory again. The Observer Effect of coffee making; the mere act of observing alters the reality being observed.”

“When the act is Ianto making coffee, I certainly don’t want to risk him altering it!”

Comments

[smithy161.livejournal.com]

The uncertainty principal is to do with measurement. If you know with high accuracy one property of a particle (its speed) you can't accurately measure another property (location).

Wiki clicky (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heisenberg_uncertainty_principle)

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

hmmm.. not sure how to represent that in a drabble then. Does the observer effect have a fancy name? (or is it not really a big deal at all)

Or just change the line to:

“So, we’re talking quantum theory again. The Observer Effect of coffee making; the mere act of observing alters the reality being observed.”

[smithy161.livejournal.com]

No fancy name that I know of... it's also more physical than it's sometimes perceived to be. Just looking isn't enough. We aren't talking Schrodinger's cat here (that's quantum superpositions). The observer effect is literally that, to detect something such as an electron, you have to lob a proton at it. And hitting an electron with a proton naturally changes its velocity and position.

The observer effect of coffee making should fit, though. I can imagine Jack not only watching, but actively interfering, trying to get Ianto to make it faster!

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

okay, fixed... I am going to have to figure out how to write Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle nto a coffee drabble one of these days

[phoenix64.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's easy - it's all about how much coffee Ianto uses to make a pot. The act of measuring it precisely would ultimately result in a different amount of coffee. Which would result in a less-than-Ianto-perfect pot.

[smithy161.livejournal.com]

Ah! This is something I know about. When I'm on our huge fuck-off coffee machine at work, the best coffee happens when you're running around going 'aaaaah, I have to make a zillion lattes in the next five minutes!' and just lob stuff around. If you hang about measuring a shot precisely, the laws of coffee go 'uh, no', and it turns out shit.