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Quantum Mechanics Sussed
By sciencebase, Section News
Posted on Tue Sep 05, 2006 at 11:07:31 PM PST

Controversial Conjecture If you've ever been confused by the seemingly baffling behavior of matter and energy on the very small scale, then you obviously didn't get enough grease on your overalls in Prof Feynman's (quantum) mechanics class.

Heisenberg and Schrödinger have a lot to answer for. They turned the simplistic world we now call classical physics into something probabilistic where cats could be dead or alive simultaneously and particles ripple like waves, while waves take on the solidity of particles.

Their new mathematical procedures accurately replicated many of the newly observed properties of atoms. This new physics came at a price - everything got weird.

But, step back a moment to Dick's first QM class and you will discover that quantum mechanics is really nothing more than classical mechanics with a mechanism to measure the action of change.

His interpretation explains why QM is not only good at accounting for the properties of atoms but also explains why they don't collapse, how solids can be rigid, and how different atoms combine together in what we call chemistry and biology.

Paul Quincey does a fine job over at CSICOP of explaining why quantum mechanics may look weird but is in fact nothing more than classical physics on a small scale, with a mechanism for measuring action.

Unlike some of the many articles that get posted in the SciScoop Cracked Conjectures section, Quincey's feature is entirely transparent. Read it from beginning to end and you don't find anyone trying to overthrow 100 years of Einstein, there are no sweeping statements that everything we have ever learned before is b*ll*cks. Instead, Quincey provides an interpretation of nature, based oon Feynman's teachings, that anyone should be able to understand.

One thing he doesn't mention in more detail is the energy x time aspect of "action", I have a niggling feeling that this must somehow matter. Isn't Planck's constant measured in joule-seconds? That said, this article should be the first thing you read before heading into a quantum mechanics class, unless you somehow have Feynman as your professor.

Pick up Quincey' complete explanation here: QM ain't so weird

Quantum Mechanics Sussed | 2 comments (2 topical, 0 hidden)

Quantum mechanics on a roll (5.00 / 1) (#1)
by koantum on Thu Sep 07, 2006 at 04:59:56 AM PST
This article by Paul Quincey from the Skeptical Inquirer, recommended by science writer David Bradley (sciencebase), contains a great deal of hogwash. Find out why.



Quant (none / 0) (#2)
by sciencebase on Thu Sep 07, 2006 at 11:40:19 PM PST
Perhaps you could add a summary of the "Find out why".



Quantum Mechanics Sussed | 2 comments (2 topical, 0 hidden)

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