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Ask a Spaceman!

AaS! 188: What is the Meaning of Quantum Mechanics? (Part 6: Einstein’s Revenge)

Ask a Spaceman!

Paul M. Sutter

Astrophysics, Science, Cosmos, Holes, Black, Astronomy, Natural Sciences, Universe, Cosmology, Space, Physics

4.8853 Ratings

🗓️ 15 November 2022

⏱️ 39 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Part 6! What were Einstein’s objections to quantum mechanics? Why was he so bothered by non-locality? What is the EPR paradox? I discuss these questions and more in today’s Ask a Spaceman!

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Thanks to Cathy Rinella for editing.

Hosted by Paul M. Sutter (http://www.pmsutter.com).

Transcript

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0:00.0

What is reality? No, really, what is reality? What do we mean? When we say that something is real rather than, you know, not real. What's the difference? I suppose when you

0:24.3

tuned into this episode, you were not expecting a deep, profound, real question. I bet you weren't

0:31.9

expecting ask a philosopher in today's episode, but when we start digging into the meaning of quantum mechanics,

0:39.6

of which we are now an astounding six episodes deep, I kind of warn you, it's basically all

0:46.1

philosophy from here on out. In the last episode, we highlighted the debates between Heisenberg

0:52.1

and Bohr on one side and Schrodinger and the other about the reality of the wave function.

0:58.5

Schrodinger thought it was a real thing that subatomic particles were literally smeared out over space,

1:05.8

and others believed that it didn't have physical existence, but was merely a mathematical convenience for

1:13.0

expressing a fundamental randomness and uncertainty of the physics of the subatomic level.

1:18.7

That view would eventually become to dominate and be called the Copenhagen interpretation.

1:25.1

Folks, these questions, the very first question we ask about quantum mechanics, which is, is the wave function real? Is matter actually wavy shaped? Or does the wave function merely represent a mathematical trick for calculating probabilities? These are straight up no-holds-barred philosophical questions.

1:47.2

We've moved beyond the pure physics, if there can ever be such a thing that quantum

1:52.5

mechanics had already established. It was a mathematical theory that could predict the

1:56.8

outcomes of experiments. Done. Shares that with literally every other physical theory in existence.

2:04.3

But that was it. Now we're past that. And it's important to get past that even a little because we need

2:10.2

to learn what quantum mechanics is teaching us about the universe. Is it teaching us about reality

2:16.8

or just our views of reality?

2:20.6

What I left out intentionally in the last episode was a major player in these philosophical debates.

2:28.6

Einstein. Einstein was one of the founders of quantum mechanics. Some people call him the first modern physicist.

2:38.4

And yet after his initial work in 1905, the spotlight of the quantum mechanical stage shifts to other actors, Schrodinger, Heisenberg, Boer, and so on.

2:50.2

Einstein appears here and there in the record, following 1905,

2:55.4

as more of a commentator and communicator and eventually a critic of the emerging theory

...

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