Classical physics in the form Newtonian mechanics emerged during the scientific revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries from an Enlightenment of rational logic/mathematics combined with observation of reality in a fundamental shift away from religion scholastics. The basic idea was rational mechanics as physics, which was (more or less) understandable and not only magical.
In the late 19th century classical physics incorporated electro-magnetics made understandable through Maxwell's equations.
But the modern physics of relativity theory and quantum mechanics emerging in the beginning of the 20th century signified a return to magical thinking.
All the great physicists of the 20th century Einstein, Bohr, Schrödinger, Dirac, Feynman, Gell Mann, Weinberg admitted that quantum mechanics cannot be understood, while suggesting that this only adds to its beauty as the prime achievement of human intellect.
To teachers of quantum mechanics this created a problem: How to teach a subject that is not understood by even the sharpest minds? The only way out for the average teacher was to pretend to understand and refer to the admissions of the top physicists of non understanding, as only a sort of teasing: Of course quantum mechanics is well understood and so can be presented in text books to students expected to come to understanding by diligent study.
The computer is often presented as an off-spring of quantum mechanics thus showing its power, but the first realisations of the idea of a computer was made in rational mechanical terms as the Analytical Engine by Babbage with all its wheels and gears. A realisation in terms of quantum mechanics would be a quantum computer but the question is if there will ever be such a thing.
Is it possible to imaging a form of post-modern physics with a return to the rationality of classical physics. My answer in all modesty is RealQM.
Inga kommentarer:
Skicka en kommentar