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The original was posted on /r/askscience by /u/Acrobatic-Bug-100 on 2023-08-03 10:47:40+00:00.

Original Title: How is quantum entanglement different from a controlled experiment in which a pineapple is thrown at a high speed to a symmetric object, scattering it into pieces, and measuring one of its piece in air to determine the properties (speed, spin) of other pieces in air?

I was originally interested in physics, but I always had simpler explanations for complex things which I couldn’t disprove based on my limited knowledge and remained unanswered. So I eventually gave up. This is one of the questions I had and was not able to find an answer to.

I also view quantum mechanics as deterministic rather than probablistic but think the probablistic approach is necessary because we cannot measure all the variables with our very limited measuring and processing capabilities. For example, a roll of die by a machine is deterministic if we measure and process everything from the light fluctuation in power, air movement in real time, mass of the die, initial position, curvature, area of contact, etc. but because that is too complicated we use it as random with a probability. I feel in quantum physics we are doing the same thing as it is simply more practical, but everybody I talk to truly believe I am wrong.

Coming to my question, the assumption in quantum mechanics is that the information has to travel from piece A to piece B at faster than light to explain the correlation and at any time a piece can have any property but once the properties of a piece is measured the wave function will collapse and the properties of other piece becomes clear.

But isn’t the correlation simply due to how the piece or particle was generated? No information needs to travel because the particle is simply continuing to react to the same generation event? If we can call it information isn’t it already with all the particles or pieces of pineapples in air?