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The discussion of photon entanglement in this article invokes the debatable premise that physical facts are not real unless they are observed. The article’s own glove metaphor provides a perfect counterexample. Suppose I receive a package of gloves (entangled particles) from a glove factory (particle generator), each glove wrapped individually. I keep one and send the other glove to a colleague in the next city. We get on the phone and unwrap our gloves. Mirabile dictu, I am able to infer correct information about the properties of his glove—handedness, material, size, weight, smell. Is this “glove weirdness”? A more reasonable position is that these particles have properties independent of whether they are observed.
Michael J. Dunn
Auburn, Wash.
Allen Oliphant
Colorado Springs, Colo.