Congratulations to William Wong, who won the challenge we set at the Moth Hack. We asked entrants to teach a general audience something about quantum physics, using Moth’s Atlas engines. William made Quantum Crew, a party game about entanglement.
Two teams try to keep a space station running without talking to each other. Each round, each team sees a light, green or red, and sets a valve to open or closed. The valves have to match, unless both lights are red, when they have to be opposite. Neither team can see the other’s light, so however carefully they plan, they can’t get more than 75% of rounds right. The station needs 80%.
Then the teams are given a pair of entangled crystals, one each, which choose their valves for them. With the right dial settings, they get about 85% of rounds right.
Physicists use this kind of test to show that entangled particles can’t just be carrying instructions set in advance. We also liked that the game shows what entanglement can’t do: the crystals never let the players send each other a message.
The game’s poster.
Quantum Crew/William Wong
Play it yourself: Quantum Crew