system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: how do particles know when they are being observed?
gpt
At the quantum level, observation isn't a passive thing. Rather than just looking at an object like we would in normal life, it's more like a blind person tapping something with their cane. Predictably, if that object is something like a baseball on a hard floor, tapping it would tell the person where it is, but also change its velocity. The same kind of concept is in play with quantum particles because we have to interact with them somehow to get information.