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Springer eBooks

Leaving the Realm of the Visualizable: Waves, Quanta, and the Rise of Quantum Theory

Menas C. Kafatos, Robert L. Nadeau

Published Jan 1, 1990• 1 citation
Publisher
DOI
10.1007/978-1-4684-0360-2_2

Related papers

The Evolution and Development of the Quantum Theory

N. M. BLIGH

Nature•Feb 5, 1927•3 citations

Leaving The Realm Of The Visualizable: Waves, Quanta, And The Rise Of Quantum Theory

Robert L. Nadeau, Menas C. Kafatos

Abstract Toward the end of the nineteenth century Lord Kelvin, one of the best known and most respected physicists at that time, commented that “only two small clouds” remained on the horizon of knowledge in physics. In other words, there were, in Kelvin’s view, only two sources of confusion in our otherwise complete understanding of material reality. The two clouds were the results of the Michelson-Morley experiment, which failed to detect the existence of a hypothetical substance called the ether, and the inability of electromagnetic theory to predict the distribution of radiant energy at different frequencies emitted by an idealized “radiator” called the black body. These problems seemed so small that some established physicists were encouraging those contemplating graduate study in physics to select other fields of scientific study where there was more opportunity to make original contributions to knowledge. What Lord Kelvin could not have anticipated was that efforts to resolve these two anomalies would lead to relativity theory and quantum theory, or to what came to be called the new physics.

•Dec 2, 1999•0 citations

Visualizability and Intelligibility

Henk W. de Regt

This chapter investigates the relation between visualizability and intelligibility, by means of an in-depth study of the transition from classical physics to quantum physics in the first decades of the twentieth century. In this development, the issue of visualizability played a central role. After a brief discussion of the visualizability of classical physics, it examines the gradual loss of visualizability in quantum theory, focusing on the work of quantum physicists Niels Bohr, Wolfgang Pauli, Werner Heisenberg, and Erwin Schrödinger. The chapter presents a detailed analysis of the role of visualizability (Anschaulichkeit) in the competition between Schrödinger’s wave mechanics and Heisenberg’s matrix mechanics, and in the discovery of electron spin. The contextual theory of understanding asserts that visualizability is one out of many possible tools for understanding, albeit one that has proved to be very effective in science. This conclusion is supported by an analysis of the role of visualization in postwar quantum physics, especially via Feynman diagrams.

Oxford University Press eBooks•Aug 22, 2017•0 citations

Quantum Theory and Pictures of Reality

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Are Quanta Unidirectional?

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Theory of the Brownian motion of a Planck radiator in black body radiation.---In the case of a classical resonator it is shown that the motion takes place even though the emission and absorption is not unidirectional provided the radiation is not strictly monochromatic. This theory is then extended to the case of a quantized atom. Interference between the waves emitted by the atom and the surrounding radiation provides for the recoil actions without the assumption of unidirectional quanta. Statistically these have the same effect as Einstein's unidirectional quanta. This theory removes the contradiction postulated by Einstein between the Rubinowicz-Sommerfeld considerations and the requirements of classical Brownian motion. It leaves the wave-theory of light intact and is in agreement with Bohr's principle of correspondence.

Physical Review•Oct 1, 1923•8 citations

THE SLOW RISE OF QUANTUM THEORY

Princeton University Press eBooks•Jun 16, 2020•0 citations
Abstract Toward the end of the nineteenth century Lord Kelvin, one of the best known and most respected physicists at that time, commented that “only two small clouds” remained on the horizon of knowledge in physics. In other words, there were, in Kelvin’s view, only two sources of confusion in our otherwise complete understanding of material reality. The two clouds were the results of the Michelson-Morley experiment, which failed to detect the existence of a hypothetical substance called the ether, and the inability of electromagnetic theory to predict the distribution of radiant energy at different frequencies emitted by an idealized “radiator” called the black body. These problems seemed so small that some established physicists were encouraging those contemplating graduate study in physics to select other fields of scientific study where there was more opportunity to make original contributions to knowledge. What Lord Kelvin could not have anticipated was that efforts to resolve these two anomalies would lead to relativity theory and quantum theory, or to what came to be called the new physics.
This chapter investigates the relation between visualizability and intelligibility, by means of an in-depth study of the transition from classical physics to quantum physics in the first decades of the twentieth century. In this development, the issue of visualizability played a central role. After a brief discussion of the visualizability of classical physics, it examines the gradual loss of visualizability in quantum theory, focusing on the work of quantum physicists Niels Bohr, Wolfgang Pauli, Werner Heisenberg, and Erwin Schrödinger. The chapter presents a detailed analysis of the role of visualizability (Anschaulichkeit) in the competition between Schrödinger’s wave mechanics and Heisenberg’s matrix mechanics, and in the discovery of electron spin. The contextual theory of understanding asserts that visualizability is one out of many possible tools for understanding, albeit one that has proved to be very effective in science. This conclusion is supported by an analysis of the role of visualization in postwar quantum physics, especially via Feynman diagrams.
Theory of the Brownian motion of a Planck radiator in black body radiation.---In the case of a classical resonator it is shown that the motion takes place even though the emission and absorption is not unidirectional provided the radiation is not strictly monochromatic. This theory is then extended to the case of a quantized atom. Interference between the waves emitted by the atom and the surrounding radiation provides for the recoil actions without the assumption of unidirectional quanta. Statistically these have the same effect as Einstein's unidirectional quanta. This theory removes the contradiction postulated by Einstein between the Rubinowicz-Sommerfeld considerations and the requirements of classical Brownian motion. It leaves the wave-theory of light intact and is in agreement with Bohr's principle of correspondence.