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

4.8 • 853 Ratings

🗓️ 15 November 2022

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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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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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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