Quotes About Quantum

Scientists, therefore, are responsible for their research, not only intellectually but also morally. This responsibility has become an important issue in many of today's sciences, but especially so in physics, in which the results of quantum mechanics and relativity theory have opened up two very different paths for physicists to pursue. They may lead us - to put it in extreme terms - to the Buddha or to the Bomb, and it is up to each of us to decide which path to take.

Subatomic particles do not exist but rather show 'tendencies to exist', and atomic events do not occur with certainty at definite times and in definite ways, but rather show 'tendencies to occur'.

Some experiments show that light is wave-like. Other experiments show equally well that light is particle-like. If we want to demonstrate that light is a particle-like phenomenon or that light is a wave-like phenomenon, we only need to select the appropriate experiment.

Immensely simplified, quantum physics has two rules: Very small things don't have locations, we just have probabilities of where they are. The first rule only works if these very small things don't interact with their environment.

is uncertain' or that 'anything goes'. In fact, it is a clear mathematical statement. It reflects the way that different aspects of the physical world are intimately connected at the quantum level. Its best-known formulation is that the more accurately you know the position of a quantum particle, the less accurately you know its momentum.†† It is impossible to know both perfectly at the same time.

Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle is one of the most misunderstood parts of quantum theory, a doorway through which all sorts of charlatans and purveyors of tripe8 can force their philosophical musings.

Rutherford, Bohr, Planck, Einstein, Pauli, Heisenberg, Schrödinger, Dirac.

Heisenberg removed the conceit that the workings of Nature should necessarily accord with common sense.

Let me guess," I said. "This is about Schrödinger's cat." "I'm impressed, Dylan," she replied with a smile. "Hey, I watched The Big Bang Theory.

Einstein comes along and says, space and time can warp and curve, that's what gravity is. Now string theory comes along and says, yes, gravity, quantum mechanics, electromagnetism — all together in one package, but only if the universe has more dimensions than the ones that we see.

All you are is a bag of particles acting out the laws of physics. That to me is pretty clear.

quantum mechanics—the physics of our world—requires that you hold such pedestrian complaints in abeyance.

But, as Einstein once said, "For we convinced physicists, the distinction between past, present, and future is only an illusion, however persistent."5

When you realize that quantum mechanics underlies all physical processes, from the fusing of atoms in the sun to the neural firings that constitutes the stuff of thought, the far-reaching implications of the proposal become apparent. It says that there's no such thing as a road untraveled. Yet each such road—each reality—is hidden from all others.

As Feynman once wrote, "[Quantum mechanics] describes nature as absurd from the point of view of common sense. And it fully agrees with experiment. So I hope you can accept nature as She is—absurd.

The world of the everyday suddenly seemed nothing but an inverted magic act, lulling its audience into believing in the usual, familiar conceptions of space and time, while the astonishing truth of quantum reality lay carefully guarded by nature's sleights of hand.

In the early days of atomic physics [before quantum field theory revealed the true meaning of the fine structure constant to be the strength of the coupling between the electron and photon], it was thought to have a value so close to being precisely 1/137 that numerologists started to establish cultish associations with the number 137.

they had come to realize that the concept of matter is an illusion, for they now recognized that everything in the Universe is made out of energy. Quantum

atoms are made out of invisible energy, not tangible matter! So

Our perception of what is physical us an illusion. There's nothing physical at all, it's all energy.

Non- Euclidean calculus and quantum physics are enough to stretch any brain; and when one mixes them with folklore, and tries to trace a strange background of multi-dimensional reality behind the ghoulish hints of Gothic tales and the wild whispers of the chimney-corner, one can hardly expect to be wholly free from mental tension. (Dreams In The Witch-House)

For bedtime reading, I usually curl up with a good monograph on quantum physics or string theory, my specialty. But since I was a child, I have been fascinated by science fiction. My all-time favorite is 'The Foundation Trilogy,' by Isaac Asimov.

I'm not looking to be a trophy. When not acting, I spend my time studying metaphysics and quantum mechanics to keep my life as grounded as I can.

Nature isn't classical, dammit, and if you want to make a simulation of nature, you'd better make it quantum mechanical, and by golly it's a wonderful problem, because it doesn't look so easy.