| Adapted for the Internet from: Why God Doesn't Exist |
Born 63 finally synthesized waves with particles and proposed that electrons behave as particles without
well-defined positions or momenta around the atom. The mathematicians concluded that the electron was
really neither a particle nor a wave, but rather a shell-like cloud that envelopes the nucleus. But even this
notion was and still is misleading. The mathematicians are really saying that quantum equations define the
region around the nucleus where we can find a little bead known as the electron:
- “ each particle has a probability amplitude describing its position. This amplitude is then called wave
function. This is a complex number-valued function of the position coordinates.” 64
And then, as always, there are conflicting versions and interpretations that come out of impeccable Math:
- “ One can either view the wavefunction as a real object that undergoes the wavefunction collapse in
the second stage, or one can imagine that the wavefunction is an auxiliary mathematical tool (not a
real physical entity) whose only physical meaning is our ability to calculate the probabilities.” 65
In other words, the electron is not really a cloud. In QM it works unscientifically. A particle (the wave
function) is the ability to calculate the location of a particle. Makes sense? (Around and around the
mathematician goes and never comes up with anything you can sink your teeth into!) The mathematicians
of the Roaring 20’s gradually usurped the high ground and converted what little was left of ‘physical’ light
and electrons into functions and matrices. It didn’t matter anymore what an electron looked like; the
probability distribution of a property of the electron at the moment of measurement was now being
described by something called a wave function, a mathematical matrix. From a physical point of view, light
had vanished from textbooks and discussions. The visualization of photons and electrons was left to the
idiosyncrasies of each mechanic. In the minds of the mathematicians, this was merely a trivial philosophical
issue anyways.
It was at this point that Heisenberg stepped in to put the icing on the cake for quantum theory and against
rationality. In 1927, he formally pronounced the now famous Uncertainty Principle, the notion that we
cannot simultaneously know the position and momentum of a particle. The more we know about one, the
less we know about the other. In his words:
- “ At the instant of time when the position is determined, that is, at the instant when the photon is
scattered by the electron, the electron undergoes a discontinuous change in momentum. This change
is the greater the smaller the wavelength of the light employed, i.e., the more exact the determination of
the position. At the instant at which the position of the electron is known, its momentum therefore can
be known only up to magnitudes which correspond to that discontinuous change; thus, the more
precisely the position is determined, the less precisely the momentum is known, and vice versa.”
(Heisenberg, 1927, p. 174-5).” 66
Heisenberg concluded that:
- “ In the sharp formulation of the law of causality – ‘if we know the present exactly, we can calculate the
future’ – it is not the conclusion that is wrong but the premise.” 67
Heisenberg is saying that we cannot know the exact position a particle occupies so we cannot predict what
it will do next. Theists all over the world rejoiced. After 300 years of investigations, the scholars were finally
throwing in the towel. Free will had trumped determinism. Science had gone around 360º and was now
indistinguishable from religion. Apparently, there were things that God didn’t want Man to know. Human
intelligence and knowledge apparently did have limits.
Heisenberg’s irrational pronouncements sealed the fate of what was left of Physics, and from then on
Mathematical Physics became the uncontested cult of the universities and think tanks. It eventually would
provide jobs to thousands in Hollywood. His ‘discovery’ was one of those chance milestones that comes
now and then at the worst possible juncture in history to veer humanity off course on an indefinite tangent.
It is hard to maintain a straight face in light of such penetrating postulate, more so in light of the solemnity
with which the establishment venerates it. Heisenberg discovered that when the ball is at rest (position), it
doesn’t move (momentum), and when the ball moves (momentum), it is not at rest (position) (Fig. 3.23). He
was awarded the 1932 Nobel Prize in Quantum Magic for sharing such profound insights with humanity.
| The cloud atom! |
- ________________________________________________________________________________________
- Last modified 10/01/07
- Copyright © by Bill Gaede 2007
| The atom is like a cloud that envelopes the nucleus. If we slice an H-atom in half, it probably looks like a peach. |
