Re: New quantum measurement paradox?

[Harry Johnston <omega@ihug.co.nz>]

Neil Bates <neil_delver@yahoo.com> wrote:

>    Imagine having a detector stack (DS) of n spaced half-wave plates
> with an axle running through their centers. Now interleave between these
> plates (covering up to reach near the axle) another set of n plates
> connected to another framework, keeping the first stack's lower plate
> bottom-most. If a right-hand photon enters the stacks properly from
> below, its circular handness is flipped in alternation by each HW plate.
> The photon goes from RH to LH to RH ... . That adds angular momentum to
> successive HW plates according to the sequence: 2hbar( + - + - + ...).
> Since the odd-sequence plates are connected on the same axle, the
> accumulation of RH angular momentum will add up to a net value
> transferred to the DS of 2n*hbar. We could detect this spin in principle
> (as did R. Beth in 1936), but we'd need many, many plates for a single
> photon.

As described, after a photon passes through this device, the plates
are moving.  Where does the energy come from?

  Harry.

---
Harry Johnston, omega@ihug.co.nz
One Earth, One World, One People