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History 181B: Modern Physics

Class 26 (3/21/03)
Making sense of quantum mechanics


 
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Outline Interpreting the theory
    The Copenhagen Interpretation
    And those who, like Einstein, held out for more

Making sense: Philosophy
Making sense: History
    The task of the Nobel Committee
    Continuity and discontinuity
    Weimar culture
Names and terms
Primary Secondary
complementarity superposition, quantum tunneling
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
Assignment Niels Bohr, "The Bohr-Einstein Dialogue," in Niels Bohr: A Centenary Volume, ed. A.P. French and P.J. Kennedy (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985), 121-140.

    Focus on pp. 121-132 and 139-140, but please look at the rest. If the details around Fig. 2 (one slit) escape you, try to pick up the argument again on the next page (two slits).
    How did Bohr define complementarity? How did he illustrate it?
    What connection did he draw between complementarity and uncertainty (indeterminacy)?
    What did he think was the point of the thought-experiment he described?
    Extra: In what ways does Bohr's story here differ from the usual accounts of the two-slit experiment? What can that tell you about Bohr?
    Extra: What would you guess Einstein thought of this birthday present?
Copyright © Cathryn Carson 2003