Quantum Focus Help Index

How To ...

Play the game

Commands

Action menu

Help menu


How to
About the game

This is a game based on the quantum mechanics of three particles tied together with springs. The three particles are represented by the primary colors red, green and blue. The game starts with the three particle positions known with 100% probability at the boxes shown. But as time progresses the probabilities of finding these particles spreads. The intensity of the color of each particle in a given box is a measure of the probability of finding the particle in that box. So the colors are seen to shift in intensity, spread and mix. The color of any given box is a mix of the primary colors that represent the particles – the proportions of the mix correspond to the probabilities of finding each particle in the box.

The object of the game is to focus each particle as sharply as possible and also to bring the three particles as close together (probabilistically) as possible. So the ultimate aim is to produce one bright white box with completely dark surroundings.

The only tool available is the clicking of the mouse (left button) on selected boxes. The clicking in a box simulates a quantum mechanical position observation. A particle is "detected" by an observation with a probability given by the probability of finding the particle in the given box. The quantum side effect of detecting a particle is its "wavefunction collapse". This process "sucks" in the probabilities of finding the given particle from all other boxes and concentrates it in the box it is detected (100% probability). A sound effect will let you know when this happens and you will also notice the color of the collapsed particle suddenly focus in the box it is detected. However, in the very next step the focused particle starts spreading again. Note that every click does not produce a collapse as it is a probabilistic process.

The game can be played at four different levels of difficulty.

Note that the strategies of this game are not at all like standard shoot-em-down games. Rapid fire mouse clicking does not always help – it merely shortens the life of the mouse. Besides, there is a limited number of clicks that are available to you – so use them wisely.

When your quota of clicks is over, the game is over. A final score display at the end of a game lets you know how well you focussed.


Quantum mechanics

Quantum mechanics is the physics of matter at the smallest scale. It deals with the most fundamental constituents of all matter – electrons, protons, neutrons etc.. These objects (particles) do not behave anything like objects we see around us – like baseballs, trees, houses etc.. Due to our inability to "see" these particles directly, all we can do is understand them through mathematical models that are supported by indirect experimental evidence.

This game uses the mathematics of quantum mechanics to simulate particles like electrons on the computer screen. The mathematical description of such a particle is called a wavefunction and the wavefunction can give only a probability of where the particle is or what its speed is. The color intensity in a box on the screen gives the probability of finding each of the three particles in that box. The three primary colors (red, green and blue) represent the three particles. Clicking the mouse (left button) on a box is a simulation of particle position measurement. The measurement process might yield nothing as the probability of finding one of the particles need not be a 100%. However, if the measurement actually locates a particle in the clicked box, something even weirder happens. The wavefunction "collapses" – which means, if there was a probability of finding the same particle in other boxes before measurement, then all that probability is instantaneously "sucked" into the clicked box. So the clicked box has 100% probability of having that particle. But as time elapses, the probability spreads again to neighboring boxes.

The "springs" that tie the particles together are not real springs but some forces that pull the particles together like springs would. Surprisingly, the effect of these springs is the opposite of what one would expect. They make the points of maximum probability of the three particles move away from each other!

The boxes on the computer screen represent individual points in space. It would have been great if each pixel on the screen could represent a different point in space. But that would require ridiculously large computation times and memory. As it is, the wavefunction spread can become painfully slow on slower computers. Keep in mind that in each time step the computer is doing the actual quantum computation required by theory. This is a complex computation and even on a computer takes significant time. As we are approximating points in space to be rather large boxes, the quantum computation is not exact but it simulates qualitative aspects surprisingly accurately.


Game strategies

There are two somewhat independent goals of the game. Each particle must be focused in as small a region as possible and the three particles must be brought as close as possible.

To collapse (focus) a particle to a desired box, one needs to click on the box. But if the particle has a low probability (intensity) in that box, it will require many clicks to do the job. So it may be better to do it in steps. Focus the particle in intermediate boxes where the probability may be somewhat higher.

Do not let any of the particle probabilities spread too much. That thins out the probability and makes it difficult to focus.

Each time step in the spreading process takes a certain amount of time. So, even if you click very rapidly, focussing takes its own sweet time. Rapid clicking only piles up messages in the queue which are executed when the time comes. But this wastes the limited number of clicks available by fucussing on the same box in quick succession. So it is prudent to pace your clicking and wait for the effect of one click before trying the next. This is particularly important for slower computers.

If two particles are primarily on opposite sides of the screen, it takes many steps to bring them together by moving them across the screen. However, you may notice that particle probability that reaches one edge reappears on the opposite edge. So it is sometimes much easier to wait for it to do this reappearance trick than to drag it all the way across the screen.


Action menu commands

The Actions menu has the following function:

Start	Starts a game.
Level	Selects one of four levels of difficulty.
Exit	Exits the application.


Help menu commands

The Help menu offers the following commands, which provide you assistance with this application:

Help Topics	Offers you an index to topics on which you can get help.
About	Displays copyright and the version number of this application.


Start command
Start command (Action menu)

Use this to start a game.


Level command
Level command (Action menu)

There are four different levels of difficulty possible – beginner, intermediate, advanced and expert.

The beginner and intermediate level use a larger number of boxes than the other two levels. This slows down the rate of spreading for these two levels.

The other feature that is adjusted for levels of difficulty is the speed at which the particles move away from each other.


Exit command
Exit command (Action menu)

Use this command to close the application.


Help Topics command (Help menu)

Use this command to display the opening screen of Help.  From the opening screen, you can jump to step-by-step instructions about the Quantum Focus game.


About command (Help menu)

Use this command to display the copyright notice and version number of your copy of Quantum Focus.