# Spooky stuff happening: please debunk **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 23, 2015, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spooky-stuff-happening-please-debunk/735547 "2015-10-23T15:41:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2015, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spooky-stuff-happening-please-debunk/735547/21 "2015-10-24T03:19:36Z")
> [@Jennshark](#): > > I did doorbell experiments and ensured the button is “popped out” and not pushed halfway in (as per upthread). Porch gate locked, Project Quantum Entanglement commences! If your door bell is in fact quantum entangled with another door bell somewhere in the universe (and most probably nearby, like somewhere in your city), then anything you do to prevent your door bell from sounding at 3:00 in the morning, will _guarantee_ that the entangled door bell across town _will_ sound at 3:00 in the morning, thus becoming a nuisance to someone else – possibly even a near neighbor, or a friend. And conversely, when your door bell woke you up, you could have been sure that the entangled bell was not waking somebody up. But the whole theory also states that you could never know or find out about it. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2015, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spooky-stuff-happening-please-debunk/735547/22 "2015-10-24T03:30:43Z")
> [@Jennshark](#): > > I’m also thinking this is a good explanation for the ghosty doorbell. > > **OTOH I’ve always wanted to have a pet demon, but it would need come up with something more creative** than car alarms and doorbells if it wants room and board here. Pet demons can be fun, but they tend to cause trouble if you don’t train them carefully. I recommend the book [_Practical Demonkeeping_](http://www.amazon.com/Practical-Demonkeeping-Pine-Cove-Series/dp/0060735422) by Christopher Moore. Not sure if it’s in print any more, but public libraries might have it or know of one that does. This is the tale of a young man who accidentally catches himself a demon, and then spends the next 75 or so years trying to get rid of it. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2015, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spooky-stuff-happening-please-debunk/735547/23 "2015-10-24T16:26:18Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > If you find a flaming paper bag on your doorstep don’t stomp on it to put it out. lol ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2015, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spooky-stuff-happening-please-debunk/735547/24 "2015-10-24T19:36:02Z")
> [@Jennshark](#): > > If I’ve entered Quantum Entanglement do I still need to go to work? No. If your doorbell is quantum entangled with another doorbell, then at some point they must have been _ **one** _ doorbell that split into two doorbells. If you can do this, you can just stay home and work in your pajamas selling doorbells by mail order. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2015, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spooky-stuff-happening-please-debunk/735547/25 "2015-10-24T21:45:07Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > No. If your doorbell is quantum entangled with another doorbell, then at some point they must have been _ **one** _ doorbell that split into two doorbells. If you can do this, you can just stay home and work in your pajamas selling doorbells by mail order. Bad business strategy. Pairs of entangled doorbells must necessarily have opposite charge. That is, if you can sell one doorbell for, say, $30, then someone else (who necessarily can’t be you) must take a $30 _loss_ on the doorbell he sells. You can’t predict which of you will gain $30 and which will lost $30 on each doorbell sale until you actually sell it. In the long run, you just break even. It could be different is you manufacture and sell your doorbells near a black hole. Every once in a while, you would expect to sell the +$30 doorbell someone relatively far away, while the -$30 doorbell falls into the black hole (thus, eventually evaporating the re-sale value of the black hole). This is a rare event, though, so it takes a long time. (And a serious question: I never quite understood why it’s always the +$30 doorbell that escapes and the -$30 doorbell that falls in.) ETA: Notice also, when you sell a doorbell, one of takes a $30 profit and one takes a $30 loss, at the same instantaneous time. Thus, you have a spooky transfer of wealth at a distance action. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2015, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spooky-stuff-happening-please-debunk/735547/26 "2015-10-24T22:07:30Z")
No, no – quantum entanglement applies to physics, not economics. The OP could sit around at home in his (or her) jammies running a highly profitable mail order business on doorbells for which his inventory cost was zero. The real problem is that all the doorbells he sold would, due to quantum entanglement, appear to be haunted by demons, much like the OP’s own. Of course the customers don’t have to know this, but the return rate would likely be quite high. I suggest the OP proactively deal with this by establishing a no-returns policy and publishing a FAQ on his mail order website in which unexplained ringing of the doorbells is blamed on the wiring. > [@Senegoid](#): > > (And a serious question: I never quite understood why it’s always the +$30 doorbell that escapes and the -$30 doorbell that falls in.) The best answer I can give as a non-expert is that this attempt to explain Hawking radiation intuitively is, in fact, now considered neither an accurate description of the physical process nor even a reasonable analogy – even though it was once advanced by Hawking himself (in the Cambridge lectures, and possibly elsewhere too). IOW, the black hole removing a virtual anti-particle from the universe thus allowing the partner virtual particle to become a real particle is not an accurate depiction of what actually happens. ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2015, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spooky-stuff-happening-please-debunk/735547/27 "2015-10-24T22:12:46Z")
> [@RadioWave](#): > > Sounds more like someone is messing with you. Got any friends in the neighborhood with a prankish sense of humor? > > I’m an engineer and I can’t think of any way a car remote or garage opener would have any affect on a car alarm. As for the doorbell, could someone reach it from outside the gate with a stick? There’s a mid nineties BMW across the street with an alarm that goes off everytime a taxi pulls up and radios its base. The car rarely starts in the winter so the owner quite often uses a cab to get to work at 5am. These two facts combined are really annoying! ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2015, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spooky-stuff-happening-please-debunk/735547/28 "2015-10-24T22:50:44Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > If your door bell is in fact quantum entangled with another door bell somewhere in the universe (and most probably nearby, like somewhere in your city), then anything you do to prevent your door bell from sounding at 3:00 in the morning, will _guarantee_ that the entangled door bell across town _will_ sound at 3:00 in the morning, thus becoming a nuisance to someone else – possibly even a near neighbor, or a friend. And conversely, when your door bell woke you up, you could have been sure that the entangled bell was not waking somebody up. But the whole theory also states that you could never know or find out about it. Schroedinger’s doorbell? The doorbell is buzzing, and not buzzing. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2015, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spooky-stuff-happening-please-debunk/735547/29 "2015-10-24T22:52:36Z")
> [@GrumpyBunny](#): > > Schroedinger’s doorbell? The doorbell is buzzing, and not buzzing. As long as you don’t open the door. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spooky-stuff-happening-please-debunk/735547/30 "2015-10-25T00:18:05Z")
> [@RadioWave](#): > > I’m an engineer and I can’t think of any way a car remote or garage opener would have any affect on a car alarm. My key fob has a button to set off my alarm. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spooky-stuff-happening-please-debunk/735547/31 "2015-10-25T00:29:48Z")
I don’t know how it isn’t obvious to you that your house is haunted. Ghosts love die-hard skeptics. They’re a lot like cats that way. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spooky-stuff-happening-please-debunk/735547/32 "2015-10-25T00:45:29Z")
> [@Jennshark](#): > > Doorbell: button is probably 50+ years old, which could certainly explain an electrical short causing the ring. The puzzling thing is how it got pushed in and stuck. So replace it already! It’s long overdue, and shouldn’t coat more than $10. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spooky-stuff-happening-please-debunk/735547/33 "2015-10-25T00:58:56Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > So replace it already! > It’s long overdue, and shouldn’t coat more than $10. The wiring is that old, too, and might break; be careful. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spooky-stuff-happening-please-debunk/735547/34 "2015-10-25T02:36:03Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > No, no – quantum entanglement applies to physics, not economics. The OP could sit around at home in his (or her) jammies running a highly profitable mail order business on doorbells for which his inventory cost was zero. Isn’t there a violation of Bell’s Theorem in there somewhere? ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spooky-stuff-happening-please-debunk/735547/35 "2015-10-25T03:36:08Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Isn’t there a violation of Bell’s Theorem in there somewhere? No, again, I must refute you. Bell’s Theorem deals only with the question of local hidden variables. Specifically, whether local hidden variables can explain why a doorbell φ or a phone bell β will always ring just when you are sitting down to dinner δ with a nice glass of wine ω. According to the original proposition of the Bell inequalities, there should be no greater chance of such bells ringing when you are sitting down to dinner than at any other time, but modern physics has demonstrated outrageous violations of the Bell inequalities, thus establishing incontrovertible quantum entanglements between my phone and door bells and my dinner. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spooky-stuff-happening-please-debunk/735547/36 "2015-10-25T04:48:14Z")
> [@tbg](#): > > sounds like a class 5 full roaming vapor. Call 555-2368, they’re ready to believe you. “555-b e n t”? ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spooky-stuff-happening-please-debunk/735547/37 "2015-10-25T11:56:53Z")
> [@JacobSwan](#): > > There’s a mid nineties BMW across the street with an alarm that goes off everytime a taxi pulls up and radios its base. The car rarely starts in the winter so the owner quite often uses a cab to get to work at 5am. These two facts combined are really annoying! This gets even more intriguing, as it is my BMW alarm that randomly goes off . . . So: one BMW has knowledge of my BMW, but quantum entanglement can’t identify how they communicate with one another over long distances? Given that the doorbell and car alarm seem to be entangled in some way, is a doorbell in Bavaria mysteriously ringing? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spooky-stuff-happening-please-debunk/735547/38 "2015-10-25T12:38:20Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Senegoid** : > > (And a serious question: I never quite understood why it’s always the +$30 doorbell that escapes and the -$30 doorbell that falls in.) The vast majority of the time, both fall back in. Occasionally, one escapes, and that one always has positive energy, because one with negative energy, by definition, cannot escape. The key here is that it’s the _total_ energy that’s relevant, including the gravitational potential energy, and so both particles start off pretty deep in debt by virtue of being right next to a black hole. For one to escape, then, the other must be extraordinarily deep in debt, which is why Hawking radiation is so rare. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2015, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spooky-stuff-happening-please-debunk/735547/39 "2015-10-25T21:44:01Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > “555-b e n t”? It’s not like I came up with that number. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spooky-stuff-happening-please-debunk/735547/40 "2015-10-26T00:43:23Z")
> [@Jennshark](#): > > At 3am this morning our doorbell rang. We rushed downstairs and there was no one there; the push button for the bell gets stuck and makes an odd raspy noise when pushed hard because it sticks in the poked-in position – it was in this position when I got there. > > The porch gate was locked from the inside and was still locked. > > This last week my car alarm has been going off around 3am. The alarm is not that sensitive, it takes a real knock to set it off and it has never gone off at work, where I’m parked near heavy construction and a lot full of cars coming and going. > > This is my thinking: someone in the neighborhood is leaving for work and one of their electronics (car remote? Garage opener? House alarm?) sets off my car alarm – is this a possibility? > > Doorbell: button is probably 50+ years old, which could certainly explain an electrical short causing the ring. The puzzling thing is how it got pushed in and stuck. The last time someone attempted to ring it, the button stuck, but didn’t ring successfully; someone came to the door anyway, and the button stayed in position until a short (possibly moisture-related) occurred at 3 a.m. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spooky-stuff-happening-please-debunk/735547.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spooky-stuff-happening-please-debunk/735547.md?page=3)