January 16, 2018 Wednesday
Bedtime Story
Metaphysics of Copenhagen Interpretation
Last night we had left with the Born rule
in its mathematical form:
p(x, y, z) = [
(x,y,z,t0)]2
where the left hand side represents the
probability density function and the right hand side the wave function of a
single structureless particle in space
The wave function expresses in it a fundamental
and necessary wave-particle duality.
This is known as the principle of complementarity
of quantum mechanics.
In other words different experiments of the
same event or system can reveal to us particle-like properties and wave-like
properties.
The principle of complementarity thereby
accepts the wave-particle duality as an inherent property of nature and not
some sort of absurd dichotomy as it would appear to a classical physicist.
The inner workings of atomic and subatomic
processes are necessarily and inherently obscure to direct observation.
Why so?
Just imagine if you had to measure the
speed of a moving car with a mechanism that involved bombarding the car with
giant boulders each measuring one ton!
Or if you had to measure the speed of
flowing river water by blocking it with a massive dam like structure which
would quite evidently not only alter the water’s velocity but create additional
eddies and turbulence distorting the very data it was supposed to measure.
You get the idea.
This means that the very act of observation
(and more so measurement) is inflicting irreparable disturbance on the system.
Lastly, when the quantum numbers of
particles are large then properties emerge which are very similar to the
findings of classical mechanics.
This is known as the correspondence
principle of quantum mechanics which states that behavior that are described by
the theory of quantum mechanics reproduces classical physics in the limit of
large quantum numbers.
In other words when in serious physics laboratories
calculations are made for large orbits and large energies then quantum
calculations has to agree with classical calculations.
If you now zoom out and try to understand
the metaphysics of Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics what it seems
to be suggesting is that quantum mechanics provides us knowledge of phenomena
rather than show us “really existing objects”.
This would suggest then that quantum
mechanics is an epistemic theory rather than an ontic one.
It was in relation to such radical theories
developing in those times that Karl Popper made his astute remark.
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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