U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Physics

What is Quantum Physics? Dancers Explain: Animations and videos

Share

Regular oscillation

NIST’s microscopic aluminum drum, embedded in a superconducting circuit, has both classical and quantum properties. Like a percussion instrument it oscillates at a steady rate, or beat with a well-defined amplitude (drum height) or stored energy.

gif_1_regular_oscillation
Quantum Dance: Regular Oscillation
Quantum Dance: Regular Oscillation
All the dancers form a group and move together in a circle around the stage whose center is lit by a spotlight. Similar to a drum oscillating at a steady rate and amplitude, the dancers’ classical motion looks like a scientific representation of an oscillator—a point moving in a circle when tracking its position and speed on a graph.

Random oscillation

The drum beats in an irregular, random fashion. Quantum randomness is more peculiar than this type of classical “noisy” motion.

random oscillation animated gif
Quantum Dance: Randomness
Quantum Dance: Randomness
Similar to a random set of drumbeats, each of the four dancers performs his or her own random sequence of nine different dance phrases (each phrase representing a different energy state). This type of randomness is not classical “noise” but rather the uncertainty nature creates in the quantum world.

Quantum superposition

The drum beats at one frequency (rate) and four different energies at the same time, a feature of the quantum world known as a superposition. Each energy state is indicated by a different color—blue, green, yellow or red.Type or paste content in this area.

superposition animated gif
Quantum Dance: Superposition
Quantum Dance: Superposition
The four dancers performing their own random sequences of dance phrases and can be thought of as one dancer in a superposition of four different energy states.

Quantum entanglement and measurement

Four separate drums—blue, green, yellow and red—each in a different energy state, become entangled. Visually they merge into one synchronized, overlapping image, but this represents four separate, entangled drums. When a measurement is performed, shown by a particle of light bouncing off the entangled drums, the green drum is dis-entangled, leaving it independent of the other three drums.

entanglement measurement
Quantum Dance: Entanglement and Measurement
Quantum Dance: Entanglement and Measurement
Entanglement – Individual dancers become entangled through touching each other repeatedly. Here, two dancers (blue and grey) are already entangled. When three of the dancers (red, green, and blue) repeatedly touch each other, entanglement is generated for all four dancers, including the grey one on the far right. Once all the dancers are entangled, they perform their dance sequences in unison. Measurement – All four dancers are already entangled. When a measurement is performed, shown by a bright flash of blue light, the grey dancer on the far right is dis-entangled, releasing her from dancing in unison with the other three dancers (blue, yellow, and red), who remain entangled with each other.

 

Physics
Created June 14, 2015, Updated January 5, 2026
Was this page helpful?