Quantum Mechanics Quotes - Page 6

• The discontinuous 'reduction of the wave packets' which cannot be derived from Schroedinger's equation is ... a consequence of the transition from the possible to the actual.

  Werner Heisenberg

  Science, Transition, Wave

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• But it is certainly not possible to insist on one hand that the formalism is complete and to insist on the other hand that its application to 'the actual' actually demands a step which cannot be derived from it.

  Karl Popper

  Science, Hands, Demand

  Karl Raimund Popper (1992). “Quantum Theory and the Schism in Physics”, p.123, Psychology Press

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• I find enough mystery in mathematics to satisfy my spiritual needs. I think, for example, that pi is mysterious enough (don't get me started!) without having to worry about God. Or if pi isn't enough, how about fractals? or quantum mechanics?

  Tom Lehrer

  Spiritual, Thinking, Worry

  Celebathiests.com Interview, June 1996.

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• Before the discovery of quantum mechanics, the framework of physics was this: If you tell me how things are now, I can then use the laws of physics to calculate, and hence predict, how things will be later.

  Brian Greene

  Discovery, Law, Use

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• String theory is the most developed theory with the capacity to unite general relativity and quantum mechanics in a consistent manner. I do believe the universe is consistent, and therefore I do believe that general relativity and quantum mechanics should be put together in a manner that makes sense.

  Brian Greene

  Believe, Together, Mechanic

  NOVA interview, www.pbs.org. October 28, 2003.

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• Over time, I started becoming more aware of the vastness and complexity of the universe, which led me away from any sort of conventional Christianity. I still love the teachings of Christ, but I also believe that the human condition prevents us from having any true objective knowledge of the universe. All human belief systems are inherently flawed. If I had to label myself now, I'd call myself a Taoist-Christian-agnostic quantum mechanic. Also, there's nothing in the actual Bible that limits a Christian in their interest in science. Anti-science is a function of ignorant fundamentalism.

  Moby

  Christian, Teaching, Believe

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• It seems sensible to discard all hope of observing hitherto unobservable quantities, such as the position and period of the electron... Instead it seems more reasonable to try to establish a theoretical quantum mechanics, analogous to classical mechanics, but in which only relations between observable quantities occur.

  Werner Heisenberg

  Science, Trying, Mechanic

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• A further aspect I should like to discuss is what I call the practice of infinite escape clauses. I believe we developed this practice to avoid facing the conclusion that the probability of self-reproducing state is zero. This is what we must conclude from classical quantum mechanical principles as Wigner demonstrated

  Sidney W. Fox

  Zero, Believe, Self

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• It is difficult for me to believe that quantum mechanics, working very well for currently practical set-ups, will nevertheless fail badly with improvements in counter efficiency.

  John Stewart Bell

  Believe, Improvement, Failing

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• String theory?[pause] It closed the conceptual gulp between relativity and quantum mechanics. It postulates that subatomic particles are not points, but strings, about one planck length long. The rate at which strings vibrate can generate the properties of all known particles. Huh? How did I know that?

  Willie Garson

  Long, Mechanic, Length

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• We look at the human body as a biochemical machine controlled by genes and therefore we see a mechanical aspect to life and then try to understand the nature of mechanics by looking at how the physical parts interact with each other. If you want to understand life you just look at it as a whole series of interactive chemical reactions. What we are leaving out is the invisible elements, the contributions of the invisible world, which are emphasized in the nature of quantum mechanics. Matter is energy and is a primary factor that must be considered because everything is ultimately energy.

  Bruce H. Lipton

  Leaving, Trying, World

  Source: lotusguide.com

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• There's no verbs before time itself exists, right? There's no popping into existence, there's no fluctuating, there's no quantum mechanical craziness, there is literally nothing.

  Sean M. Carroll

  Verbs, Craziness, Quantum

  Source: www.wbur.org

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• No. I had successfully solved the difficulty of finding a description of the electron which was consistent with both relativity and quantum mechanics. Of course, when you solve one difficulty, other new difficulties arise. You then try to sove them. You can never solve all difficulties at once.

  Paul Dirac

  Trying, Mechanic, Quantum

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• Renormalization is just a stop-gap procedure. There must be some fundamental change in our ideas, probably a change just as fundamental as the passage from Bohr's orbit theory to quantum mechanics. When you get a number turning out to be infinite which ought to be finite, you should admit that there is something wrong with your equations, and not hope that you can get a good theory just by doctoring up that number.

  Paul Dirac

  Ideas, Numbers, Orbit

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• Quantum mechanics, with its leap into statistics, has been a mere palliative for our ignorance

  Rene Thom

  Ignorance, Statistics, Mechanic

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• If all people learned to think in the non Aristotelian manner of quantum mechanics, the world would change so radically that most of what we call "stupidity" and even a great deal of what we consider "insanity" might disappear, and the "intractable" problems of war, poverty and injustice would suddenly seem a great deal closer to solution.

  Alfred Korzybski

  War, Thinking, People

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• The basic idea is to shove all fundamental difficulties onto the neutron and to do quantum mechanics in the nucleus.

  Werner Heisenberg

  Ideas, Fundamentals, Neutrons

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• [Heisenberg's seminal 1925 paper initiating quantum mechanics marked] one of the great jumps—perhaps the greatest—in the development of twentieth century physics.

  Abraham Pais

  Development, Paper, Physics

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• If all this damned quantum jumping were really here to stay, I should be sorry, I should be sorry I ever got involved with quantum theory.

  Erwin Schrodinger

  Sorry, Jumping, Mechanic

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• The only object of theoretical physics is to calculate results that can be compared with experiment... it is quite unnecessary that any satisfactory description of the whole course of the phenomena should be given.

  Paul Dirac

  Theoretical Physics, Unnecessary, Mechanic

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• Nothing can create something all the time due to the laws of quantum mechanics, and it's - it's fascinatingly interesting.

  Lawrence M. Krauss

  Law, Interesting, Mechanic

  "Lawrence Krauss On 'A Universe From Nothing'". Interview with Ira Flatow, www.npr.org. January 13, 2012.

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• If I had to label myself now, I'd call myself a Taoist-Christian-agnostic quantum mechanic.

  Moby

  Christian, Labels, Agnostic

  "Exclusive Premiere of Moby’s New Video, 'The Last Day'". Interview with Jaeah Lee, www.motherjones.com. September 2, 2014.

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• From the outset, however, this whole controversy has been plagued by tacit assumptions, very often of a philosophical rather than a physical character.

  David Bohm

  Philosophical, Character, Science

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• The treatment of the indeterminacy principle as absolute and final can then be criticized as constituting an arbitrary restriction on scientific theories, since it does not follow from the quantum theory as such, but rather from the assumption of the unlimited validity of certain of its features, an assumption that can in no way ever be subjected to experimental proof.

  David Bohm

  Science, Principles, Doe

  David Bohm (2004). “Causality and Chance in Modern Physics”, p.47, Routledge

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• No one really understands quantum mechanics.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Mechanic, Quantum

  "Does quantum mechanics carry the seeds of its own destruction?". Physics World magazine, 1991.

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