Can We Ever Hope to Understand Quantum Mechanics?

Roland L. Omnes

Tarun Biswas

Quantum mechanics courses focus mostly on its computational aspects. This alone does not provide the same depth of understanding as most physicists have of classical mechanics. The understanding of classical mechanics is significantly bolstered by the intuitive understanding that one acquires through the playing of games like baseball at an early age. It would be good to have similar games for quantum mechanics. However, real games that involve quantum phenomena directly are impossible. So, computer simulated games are good alternatives. Here a computer game involving three interacting quantum particles is discussed. It is hoped that such games played at an early age will provide the intuitive background for a better understanding of quantum mechanics at a later age.

Jeremiah James, Christian Joas

As part of an attempt to establish a new understanding of the earliest applications of quantum mechanics and their importance to the overall development of quantum theory, this paper reexamines the role of research on molecular structure in the transition from the so-called old quantum theory to quantum mechanics and in the two years immediately following this shift (1926–1928). We argue on two bases against the common tendency to marginalize the contribution of these researches. First, because these applications addressed issues of longstanding interest to physicists, which they hoped, if not expected, a complete quantum theory to address, and for which they had already developed methods under the old quantum theory that would remain valid under the new mechanics. Second, because generating these applications was one of, if not the, principal means by which physicists clarified the unity, generality, and physical meaning of quantum mechanics, thereby reworking the theory into its now commonly recognized form, as well as developing an understanding of the kinds of predictions it generated and the ways in which these differed from those of the earlier classical mechanics. More broadly, we hope with this article to provide a new viewpoint on the importance of problem solving to scientific research and theory construction, one that might complement recent work on its role in science pedagogy.

John Maddox

Armin Nikkhah Shirazi

Written at a level appropriate for an educated lay audience, this paper attempts to give a primarily conceptual overview of a framework recently introduced in reference [3] by this author, which attempts to clarify what quantum mechanics tells us about reality. Physicists may find this pa-per useful because it focuses on the central ideas of the framework at a conceptual level, thereby lessening their unfamiliarity, an unavoidable fea-ture of truly novel ideas. The author hopes that this article will motivate physicists to seriously evaluate the mathematical details of the framework given in the original reference...I think I can safely say that nobody understands Quantum Mechanics.”[1]

‎Louis Marchildon