Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id IAA16399 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Sun, 17 Mar 2002 08:30:06 GMT Message-ID: <000e01c1cd94$f4a39660$5e2ffea9@oemcomputer> From: "Philip Jonkers" <philipjonkers@prodigy.net> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> References: <AEC78E78-3945-11D6-9A4F-003065B9A95A@harvard.edu> Subject: Re: FW: MD Dawkins on quantum/mysticism convergence Date: Sun, 17 Mar 2002 00:20:12 -0900 Organization: Prodigy Internet Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000 Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Lawrence:
> > Especially when one remembers that the meaning of the term quantum is
> > the
> > smallest discernible amount. new Age folks sometimes think it means the
> > opposite, as in 'a quantum leap.'
Wade:
> But, AFAIK, that refers to the energy state of electrons, and it _is_ a
> vast leap across a gulf of immense energy, atomically speaking.
>
> But, some physicist will be coming along shortly to beat my ears with
> the facts....
Allow me before I hit the sack. Quantum mechanics knows two levels of
quantization.
In the first some physical quantities, such as energy and angular momentum,
are quantized,
that is, they are allowed to only take on discrete values represented by
socalled
quantum numbers. The very first act of quantization was one rather fuelled
by despair,
as a last resort one might say, deployed by Max Planck. So it was that in
order to solve
the great riddle of the ultra-violet catastrophe he decided to allow the
radiation due
to the black-body system only to take on dicrete energy values. Although he
remained
repugnant of that dreadfully unholy (read un-classical) decision things
fell into places as no classical theory could accomplish before.
And look and behold, the quantum era had begun.
This purely pragmatical and ad-hoc measure led to the development of the
old version of quantum mechanics pioneered by other no less giants such as
Einstein, Bohr
and Sommerfeld. It then took the next generation of physicists such as
Heisenberg, Jordan,
Born and Schroedinger to substitute the rather ad-hoc mish-mash of recipes
(which supposed
to be passing for quantum theory) by a more solid and coherent framework by
inventing matrix
and wave mechanics. Of course, the game wasn't finished until our great
friend Paul
Dirac came along and casted the whole thing into an even more rigorous and
mathematically
sound theory. Although even then the game wasn't really over and many a
mathematician
spent a great deal of time proving what Dirac simply had taken for granted (
such as the properties
of his name-bearing Dirac `function'). After all, Dirac's credo was not too
bother too much with
the math as long as the physics was right. (After all still, he got a PhD in
*applied* mathematics.)
In the second quantization matter itself is quantized. Electrons, protons,
neutrons and what have
you are defined as small packages of energy, mass, momentum, angular
momentum
and what not. The quantum variant burdened with its description is known as
quantum field
theory and its existence allows us to interpret experimental results on the
bubble chamber
for instance, my boss' highly credited invention. Unlike the birth of (real)
quantum mechanics in the
20s, to be regarded as a happy time in modern physics as a second rate
physicist could
do first rate work (wasn't that Felix Bloch who said that?),
quantum field theory or better quantum electrodynamics suffered a rather
traumatic time of
development in the late 30s and 40s due to the discovery of inherent and
persistent infinities in the theory.
Many physicist saw that as a fair excuse to leave the sinking ship and find
pleasure in other
areas (such as in biology as Max Delbrueck did and my own boss too
presumably).
Anyway, I'm dwelling (too much), getting carried away as my sentenced are
getting too long
and fancy and need to get some sleep (no I'm not drunk or intoxicated in any
other way).
But it was my pleasure and please forgive me if I left out a crucial element
or two,
Philip.
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