Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 A matter of force
- 2 Stalking the wild rainbow
- 3 Light
- 4 Maybe I'm Heisenberg
- 5 Catch a falling quantum
- 6 Quantum beanbags
- 7 Symmetries
- 8 Quantum relativity: nothing is relative
- 9 Life, the Universe and everything
- 10 The physics of a tablecloth
- 11 Colour me red, green and blue
- 12 Smashing symmetry
- 13 How much is infinity minus infinity?
- 14 Excelsior! The ascent to SU(∞)
- A modest reading proposal
- References
- Glossary
- Index
4 - Maybe I'm Heisenberg
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 A matter of force
- 2 Stalking the wild rainbow
- 3 Light
- 4 Maybe I'm Heisenberg
- 5 Catch a falling quantum
- 6 Quantum beanbags
- 7 Symmetries
- 8 Quantum relativity: nothing is relative
- 9 Life, the Universe and everything
- 10 The physics of a tablecloth
- 11 Colour me red, green and blue
- 12 Smashing symmetry
- 13 How much is infinity minus infinity?
- 14 Excelsior! The ascent to SU(∞)
- A modest reading proposal
- References
- Glossary
- Index
Summary
Neither particle nor wave
The information about the particle behaviour and the wave behaviour of light, presented in the preceding chapter, forms an extremely peculiar combination when taken together. And yet both are true: the experiments have been done as described, with the outcome as stated. There are experiments that tell us clearly that light consists of waves; there are others that tell us, equally clearly, that light consists of particles. Somehow we must find a description of light that incorporates both kinds of behaviour.
This is a formidable undertaking, but there is one cheerful fact: in absolutely none of the experiments that have ever been done did the particle and the wave behaviours occur simultaneously. Because this is a fact that covers the entire history of physics, we feel justified in assuming that this is a general feature of Nature, and that there cannot ever be an experiment in which the wave and particle behaviours both occur at the same time. This is a generalization, for we can never expect to do all possible experiments. This generalizing hypothesis was first announced by Bohr, who had the wonderful combination of daring and insight to postulate that the observation of certain quantities excludes the simultaneous observation of certain others.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Force of Symmetry , pp. 51 - 68Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1995