Quantum Mechanics

I've been to four Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics clases, and I can't say I really understand what's going on. This is a Problem, because:

A) Every day the professor says "it's okay if you don't get it, it's quantum mechanics! nobody really understands it." Which isn't so helpful when none of it makes sense and you're sifting through thought-piles of [what you don't know] and [what you don't know you don't know] and [what no ones knows]. How can you tell the difference?

B) There is homework every week. We're only required to turn in 6 out of the 9 homeworks, and last week I skipped it. I don't want to get into the habit -- eventually I have to turn in 6 of them! -- but I can't wrap my mind around it.

"The deterministic hidden variables theory of the correlated spin experiments discussed in class can be salvaged—even in the face of the observed statistics for the experiments in which θ1 ≠ θ2—if we assume that the choice of magnet settings on the left and right, on any given run of the experiment, is not independent of the state of the particle pair – that is, if we assume that there is the right kind of systematic correlation between the state of the particle pair, on any given run of the experiment, and the settings of the magnets, on that run. (This is the assumption that there is a “hidden conspiracy”.) Explain, in detail, why this is so."

Come again?

C) I'm having second thoughts about this class. It's my *elective* after all, and shouldn't I be doing something that will help me in real life post-school, or at least something that is a piece of cake? Perhaps I could learn how to make and edit videos and develop some kind of passable trade on which I can say "world! this is my skill. please make productive use from it. (and a paycheck wouldn't hurt)."

I think I'm just having WASP guilt for taking a philosophy class when I could have been learning Final Cut Pro (a popular video production software).


But what if I could convince myself that this *is* it, that Quantum Mechanics is my purpose in this time and place... and that I ought to dive into dense theory and swim around for awhile. Wouldn't it be nice to find a secret underwater cave?