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Birkhäuser Basel eBooks

1913–1921: From the Second to the Third Council

P. Marage, Grégoire Wallenborn

Published Jan 1, 1999• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The first Council in 1911 had made clear the need for a new physics, which would introduce a principle of discontinuity into the microscopic world. Ten years later, from the 1 st – 6 th April, 1921, the third Physics Council was to take place. The crucial advances made during this period can be summed up as follows: on the one hand, there was considerable progress on understanding the structure of the atom, notably thanks to Rutherford, and on the other, what might be called “the old theory of quanta” was updated, chiefly by Bohr, to take into account the emission of radiation by atoms. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

DOI
10.1007/978-3-0348-7703-9_8

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The first Council in 1911 had made clear the need for a new physics, which would introduce a principle of discontinuity into the microscopic world. Ten years later, from the 1 st – 6 th April, 1921, the third Physics Council was to take place. The crucial advances made during this period can be summed up as follows: on the one hand, there was considerable progress on understanding the structure of the atom, notably thanks to Rutherford, and on the other, what might be called “the old theory of quanta” was updated, chiefly by Bohr, to take into account the emission of radiation by atoms. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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I. The year 1927 is a landmark in the evolution of physics — the year which saw the obsequies of the notion of causality. To avoid misconceptions, it should not be thought that the concept fell a victim to the unbridled antipathy of certain physicists or their indulgence in fancies. The truth is that men of science came, very reluctantly and almost against their will, to recognize the impossibility of giving a coherent causal description of the happenings on the atomic scale, though some of them — curiously enough, amongst them Planck, Einstein, de Broglie, Schrodinger — could never bring themselves to accept wholeheartedly so drastic a renunciation of classical ideals. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
When physicists began to explore the world of atoms more precisely, as they endeavoured to understand its structure and the laws governing its behaviour, they soon encountered serious difficulties. Our intuitive concepts, based on our daily experience of the macroscopic world around us, proved to be completely erroneous on the atomic scale; the atom was incomprehensible within the framework of classical physics. In order to uncover these new mysteries, after a great deal of trial and error, entirely new concepts therefore had to be elaborated: the concepts of quantum physics. What are the main stages that have led us to this modern understanding of the atom? What is the present state of atomic physics? How has it contributed to the development of our knowledge and where is it heading?
The fundamental laws of Nature that govern the physics of atoms, elementary particles, light quanta, and everything else that is small and light, have been found to fit in one grandiose framework called Quantum Mechanics. The internal logic of this framework appears to be counter intuitive and mysterious, while extremely coherent and effective. In this general introduction the author explains why he feels the need for expressing his views on how to understand these facts, even if many known scientists have already given extensive reviews of numerous ideas and approaches. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Quantum theory has passed through three distinct stages during its evolution. The first is generally referred to as ‘old quantum theory’. During a period roughly between 1900 and 1925 Planck, Bohr and Einstein, among others, grappled with various experimental and theoretical crises by patching up classical mechanics with some new quantum ideas applied as band-aids. This is not to disparage the work; it was vitally important, and you can only do what is possible at the time. The quantum world is very different to the picture painted by classical physics. That being the case and given the extreme nature of some of these differences, we might question the wisdom of accepting the quantum view. Scientists can be quite disparaging about philosophy, sometimes while in the process of espousing, quite stridently, a philosophical position of their own. The chapter also presents an overview on the key concepts discussed in this book.