reprinted in the British trade journal Physics World in 1990, three separate and 5 lengthy replies from establishment physicists were printed in subsequent issues. For outsiders, especially scientists who rely on physicist's theories in their own fields, this situation is disquieting. Moreover, many recall their introduction to quantum mechanics as a startling, if not shocking, experience. A molecular biologist related how he had started in theoretical physics but, after hearing the ideology of quantum mechanics, marched ...
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reprinted in the British trade journal Physics World in 1990, three separate and 5 lengthy replies from establishment physicists were printed in subsequent issues. For outsiders, especially scientists who rely on physicist's theories in their own fields, this situation is disquieting. Moreover, many recall their introduction to quantum mechanics as a startling, if not shocking, experience. A molecular biologist related how he had started in theoretical physics but, after hearing the ideology of quantum mechanics, marched straight to the Reg- istrar's office and switched fields. A colleague recalled how her undergraduate chemistry professor religiously entertained queries from the class - until one day he began with the words: "No questions will be permitted on today's lecture." The topic, of course, was quantum mechanics. My father, an organic chemist at a Midwestern university, also had to give that dreaded annual lecture. Around age 16, I picked up a little book he used to prepare and was perplexed by the author's tone, which seemed apologetic to the point of pleading. It was my first brush with the quantum theory. 6 Eventually, I went to graduate school in physics. By then I had acquired an historical bent, which developed out of an episode in my freshman year in college. To relieve the tedium of the introductory physics course, I set out to understand Einstein's theory of relativity (the so-called Special Theory of 1905, not the later and more difficult General Theory of 1915). This went badly at first.
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This book takes an informative yet wry view of modern physics, and in clear non-mathematical language points out some of the controversy surrounding quantum mechanics since its conception.
David WIck recalls how he went to the pundits and asked them questions which they could not answer. He said they then make a mental note not to talk to him again.
Surprising as it might seem, the old order dies hard and ideas that are firmly established only get changed when the old guard passes.. Mach, of mach force, held up the adoption of the particle nature of physics in the 19th century. Most people think that quantum theory is the most fundamental physical theory, and de-cry any attempts to extend or modify it.
In a humourous and insightful way, David Wick puts many thinigs into perspective and leaves the reading wondering how many physicsts can be so myopic.
I recommend this to all undergarduate students in physics and chemistry. Then they should go out and question their profs and nail them to the wall. Here are some questions:
Since there is no measurement in the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, what does disperions mean?
How can entanglement exist to space like separations?
How does teleportation work?
What is the physical meaning of non-locality?
What does the wave function mean?
Why is the quantum phase ignored when passing the Infamous boundry?
What does "Iintrinsic" mean when they talk about a spin 1/2?
David Wick tells us not to give up and push our teachers until they say they don't know, or give an explanation that you, the student, understand.
