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End of the Beginning

Narrator: ``Now a brilliant fellow named Paul Dirac comes along and shows Heisenberg and Schroedinger's formulations are equivalent. He even formulates a relativistic equation for the wavy electron that yields a thing called SPIN, which Heisenberg's old friend Pauli uses to turn chemistry into a mere consequence of quantum physics.

Narrator: ``It all works! Unbelievably! And I mean that. Quantum mechanics now explains all the old experimental problems as well as a lot of new things, like . . . oh . . . chemistry. But what does it all mean?''

Born: Interpretation of $\psi^* \psi$ fundamentally changes our notion of quantities like position and momentum, and forces us to think very delicately about the role of MEASUREMENT.

``I am now convinced that theoretical physics is actual philosophy.''

Bohr: [The Copenhagen interpretation.]

Enter Einstein: ``God does not play dice.''

[Proposes experiment violating uncertainty relation.]

Bohr: [Refutes it, triumphantly using Einstein's own arguments. Draws some big nuts and bolts on the board and reminds us they're really important, even fundamental.]

``And Albert, stop telling God what to do.''


next up previous
Up: The Dreams Stuff is Made Of Previous: The Roaring 20's
Jess H. Brewer
2000-01-23