What’s the most complicated thing in the world to understand?
Dear reader – I give you: quantum mechanics.
- Do I accept the Copenhagen interpretation?
- How is it that light is both a wave and a particle (the wave-particle duality)?
- How can Schrödinger’s cat be both alive and dead?
- How is that the physical universe is probabilistic rather than deterministic (Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle)?.
Now, some 40 years ago, I did study A Level Physics, so I’m not totally unfamiliar with the behaviour of sub-atomic particles. On my reading pile is “In Search Of Schrödinger’s Cat” by John Gribbin. In the meanwhile I’ve started to watch the three-part BBC4 series “Atom” presented by Professor Jim Al-Khalili. It’s tough going …
As Niels Bohr said: “And anyone who thinks they can talk about quantum theory without feeling dizzy hasn’t yet understood the first thing about it.”