Some Quantum Mechanical Thinking

J. E. Cunningham

Ren Jinzhon

Quantum mechanics is a branch of physics, studying the movement of microscopic particles. It has realized the great leap of human understanding, from the macroscopic world to the microscopic world. In the establishing process of quantum mechanics, from the birth of quantum theory, the matrix mechanics and wave mechanics to the final establishment of quantum mechanics, the physicists, represented by Schrodinger and Heisenberg, have made an indelible contribution by using innovative thinking. The establishment illustrates the important role of creative thinking in the development of science. We should apply the concept of creative thinking to the applied talents training.

Ying Liu, Ying Liu, Michael G. B. Drew

Connecting different concepts is very important in bringing new perspectives to established principles and is often related to lateral thinking. Lateral thinking often provides old contents with interesting new light that motivates students to become more effective in exploring chemical knowledge and understanding. The usefulness of lateral thinking is here demonstrated by three aspects of traditional quantum mechanics in which we provide original thoughts in traditional fields.

L. L. J. Vick

G. Feild

Hilary Putnam

The thing that strikes everyone who looks at quantum mechanics is ‘superposition of states’. For example, one can have a hydrogen atom in such a condition that the probability that it is at one energy level is 25% and the probability that it is at the next higher energy level is 75%. Now, the problem is that one should not think of this as meaning that the atom is either at the first energy level or the second but we don't know which. What then does it mean ? That is the question! That is what ‘interpretations’ of quantum mechanics are all about. I shall not review the argument to show that one cannot think of it in a classical way, that one cannot think of it as meaning that the energy level is one or the other (nor can one think of it as meaning that the hydrogen atom is at an in-between energy level). Physicists gave up that way of viewing it (which is, unfortunately, the only way of viewing it that one can ‘explain to a barmaid’, in Rutherford's phrase) long before there were more-or-less formal proofs that one cannot view it that way. Formal proofs that there are no hidden variables are not, I think, what has played a role in the thinking of physicists; what physicists are more impressed by is the fact that if one tries to think of it that way then it doesn't square with any intelligible physical picture at all.