Experimental Blog #106

Comments on "Faust in Copenhagen - A Struggle for the Soul of Physics" by Gino Segre'

The theory of quantum mechanics begins in 1900 when the German physicist Max Planck discovered, or defined, a new constant that he named the quantum, which designates the smallest increment, or parcel, of energy. In the next 30 years or so, Albert Einstein would make some basic contributions from his relativity theories, and many criticisms of the developing theory; "God does not play dice! And He is not malicious! ... {or is He?}"

However, the major contributors to the theory of quantum mechanics were the authors of the "Copenhagen interpretation", completed in 1926 and '27. They were: Niels Bohr{"Albert, stop telling God what to do"}, Wolfgang Pauli, Werner Heisenberg{"And then I said to the Fuhrer ... "}, and Paul Dirac.

The author, Gino Segre', gives special attention to the participation of Lisa Meitner, an experimental, not theoretical, physicist and the only female participant, and Max Delbruck and Paul Ehrenfest. Besides also writing about the contribution of Erwin Schrodinger, Gino Segre' describes the input and/or criticism from at least 10 other, mostly German, physicists to quantum theory.

Quantum mechanics, or physics, is not the same as Newtonian or classical mechanics, and it is often called "counter-intuitive". It is very highly imaginative and largely unobservable.

It is said that physics tells us how to think about the world that we live in.