Before this book, I thought that the all the classic history of physics was about Newton, and all the modern history of it was about Einstein....sorry...
238-History of Quantum Physics-Cao Tianyuan-Nature-2006 Barack 2019/09/25 2020/06/26
—— "If anyone is not confused about quantum theory, then he does not understand quantum theory."
"The History of Quantum Physics" was first published in China in 2006. It explores the history of quantum physics. Quantum theory is an extremely wonderful theory: from a physical point of view, it has caused the most intense controversy and attention among scientists; from a practical point of view, it has brought unparalleled changes and progress to our society; from a scientific perspective From a historical perspective, there is almost no history that has been studied more thoroughly than the creation of quantum theory. However, it is incredible that its basic views and hypotheses have not penetrated into the consciousness of the public so far, which undoubtedly adds a mysterious halo to it.
Cao Tianyuan was born in Shanghai in 1981. He studied in the United States and Hong Kong, China, majoring in biochemistry and electronic engineering. Representative works: "History of Quantum Physics" etc.
Part of the catalog 1. The golden age 2. Dark clouds 3. Bolide 4. Where the white clouds grow 5. Dawn 6. Different routes to the same goal 7 uncertainty 8. Decisive battle 9. Astray 10. Back to the classics
The first verse of "Old Testament Genesis" states, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and th ere was light."
The story of quantum physics also started from the study of light. In the early 19th century, the great French scientist Laplace used Newton's equation to calculate the orbit of the planet and showed it to Napoleon. Napoleon asked: "Where is God in your theory?" Laplace replied calmly: "Your Majesty, my theory does not require this assumption."
Now that the hypothesis of "God" is abandoned, physicists must use observable phenomena to explain the nature of light. In history, two views have fought each other for hundreds of years. They are wave theory and particle theory. Both parties have a large number of experimental observations as a basis, but neither party can explain all natural phenomena. In history, the controversy between wave theory and particle theory has triggered several physical crises, and after each crisis, mankind seems to have a deeper understanding of the material world in which we live. As a difficult brother of physics, so does the development of mathematics.
In order to explain the phenomenon of the photoelectric effect, Planck boldly proposed the concept of light quantum, thus introducing the discontinuity, which is "apostate" and "shocking the world" into the physical world. Later, the wave-particle debate on the nature of light that lasted for hundreds of years seemed to come to an end with the conclusion of wave-particle duality.
But why can particles freely switch between wave dynamics and particle states? The Copenhagen School led by Bohr gave Copenhagen interpretation to explain phenomena in quantum physics. But the problem is that such an explanation is too dependent on the observer, because before the observer makes the observation, the quantum exists in the probability state of the wave function, which is a random superposition state; and when the observer makes the observation, it It suddenly collapsed into a specific and measurable quantum state.
But its biggest problem is that it takes "consciousness" as an important hypothesis, and we still lack consensus on the definition of "consciousness", let alone a thorough understanding of what "consciousness" is. It took hundreds of years for scientists to pull mankind from the center of the universe, but now they seem to be facing the embarrassing situation of sending mankind back to such a special position.
Therefore, in order to pursue the deterministic beauty of classical physics, physicists have also proposed many other theories, and many-worlds interpretation is one of the very attractive ideas. This theory assumes that there is a certain real, unique, and objective universe, but its dimensionality is too high. The actual universe we observe is just a low-dimensional projection of it; it also has almost countless A low-dimensional projected universe. These projected universes are orthogonal to each other, so they are often interpreted as parallel universes. It can also explain the difference between the micro world and the macro world through "decoherence". In a sense, it is an "ultimate anthropological theory." It also brings some strange inferences, such as: once a "consciousness" begins to exist, from its own perspective, it must live forever.
In addition to discussing the origin of the universe, which has nothing to do with most people, quantum mechanics also has applications that are closely related to everyone's daily life, such as quantum computers. 2 019 Nian out of a big news, Google is known to achieve a "quantum hegemony." We have not yet clearly realized what it means, but it is likely that this event is another milestone in the history of quantum physics and even human history in the eyes of future generations .
Science and religion have many similarities, but I think the biggest difference between them is that science welcomes challenges and is always being challenged. And some challenges seem to have brought the end of the world, but humans have built new high-rise buildings from the ruins again and again.
Scientists are not gods, and they make mistakes. Euclid made mistakes on the fifth hypothesis, and von Neumann also planted on the fifth hypothesis, thus drawing some wrong conclusions. But the abandoned old theories are not worthless, because they also enable us to have a deeper knowledge and understanding of the material world in which we live and live. On the other hand, the new theory is probably only temporary. It is ready to be challenged or even completely destroyed at any time, but at the same time it is full of confidence and will never surrender without a fight.
" Now, Heinrich Rudolf Hertz is standing in a laboratory at the University of Karlsruhe, concentrating on playing with his equipment. At that time, Hertz was just 30 years old and was newly married. Perhaps he would not have thought that he would become as famous as his teacher Hermann von Helmholtz in the history of science, nor would he have thought that he would become this small town together with the car king Carl Benz. Pride. Now his mind is just completely devoted to his device. "
I have noticed , many great men when they were 30 years old , often has been made on the cause of the initial representation of achievement, or at least has to go in the future and bring the greatest glory of a brilliant career for them on the way .
" Hertz keeps repeating the discharge process. Every time, sparks are excited from the receiver obediently. In Hertz's view, there is nothing more beautiful in the world. After a long time, Hertz finally rubbed her eyes. Straighten up: Now everything is clear. Electromagnetic waves really exist in space, and it is it that stimulates the electric spark on the receiver. He succeeded and successfully solved the reward proposed by the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin 8 years ago. At the same time, Maxwell’s theory also triumphed. A new peak in physics—electromagnetic theory was finally established. The great Faraday (Michael Faraday) laid the foundation for it, and the great Maxwell built its main body. Today, he-the great Hertz-capped the building. "
For some people. Discovering the truth is also a great pleasure. This kind of spiritual happiness is unparalleled. It may give people more spiritual rewards than wealth itself . However, the number of people who get great satisfaction from the search for the truth is really small.
" In October 1887, Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (Gustav Robert Kirchhoff) died in Berlin. Helmholtz strongly recommended Hertz as his successor to the professorship, but Hertz refused. Perhaps in Hertz's eyes, the hustle and bustle of Berlin It's not for him. Helmholtz understood his student's thinking and wrote to encourage him: "A person who wants to fight with many scientific issues is best to stay away from the metropolis. "It's just that Hertz did not expect that his decision suddenly changed many things.
He didn't know that he had planted the seed of a ghost in the electromagnetic wave experiment, and the person who replaced him to teach in Berlin would wake the ghost from his sleep at a destined moment. After that, everything changed. In the next 30 years, some very wonderful things will continue to happen, completely reshaping the face of physics. The prelude to a revolution has been unknowingly opened, and our universe is about to undergo a stormy baptism, which will become even more mysterious, bizarre and shocking. "
Every event that occurs now must have the results planted before. And we are doing every thing, because in the future will also become something of. Between cause and effect out there secretly intertwined. When the descendants of unraveling the time to look back from the perspective of God, would probably find life more wonderful than the drama itself.
" When people are well aware of the various behaviors of light, our most basic problem has not been solved yet, that is: "What is light in essence?" "This question does not seem to be that difficult to answer. No one would have imagined that the exploration of this question would be so protracted, and the process of this exploration would have such a profound and significant impact on physics. The significance is beyond anyone's imagination at the time. "
Many basic questions seem the answer is quite simple , or self-evident of. But when we think increasingly in-depth, we will more hair it reads like a puddle like a bottomless pit. But even if we do not think these fundamental questions in life , too , like to live on the matter very satisfied with life. But for some people, merely pursuing material life is not enough. They are also willing to spend a lot of energy to explore the spiritual world and the natural world. Some of them are willing to pay all their youth, even the price of their lives , to explore the truth that fascinates him deeply .
"The wave theory believes that light is not a material particle, but a wave generated by the vibration of the medium. Let's imagine the "wave of people" caused by spectators on a football field: although each spectator simply stands up and sits Down, there is no running around, but the "wave" is actually moving around the audience. This "wave" is a kind of wave. The same is true for the water wave in the pond. It is not an actual transmission. It is the result of the vibration of the water surface along the way. If the light is also fluctuating, we can easily explain the light and dark stripes in the projection, and it is also easy to explain that the light beams can pass through each other without interfering with each other.
Regarding the problem of straight-line propagation and reflection, people later realized that the wavelength of light is extremely short. In most cases, light behaves just like a classical particle, and diffraction experiments further prove this. But the wave theory has a basic problem: since the wave itself is the vibration of the medium, it must be transmitted in a certain medium. For example, sound can travel along air, water or even solids, but it cannot propagate in a vacuum. In order to understand this easily, everyone just needs to think like this: If there is no one in the stadium, then there is no way to talk about "people waves". "
In the world of philosophy and theology , invisible and intangible concepts are almost inevitable . But in the world of natural science , such assumptions have no place. Scientists try to remove such unprovable and unfalsifiable assumptions from the temple of science.
" " Ether "origin of the word as early as in ancient Greece: Aristotle (Aristotle)" On the day, "a book described his knowledge of celestial bodies he believed the moon and stars circles the earth, but its. The composition is different from the four elements on the earth: water, fire, air, and earth. The things in the sky should be perfect and they can only be composed of a purer element. This is what Aristotle called " The fifth element "ether" (αηθηρ in Greek). Since this concept was borrowed into science, the status of ether in history can be said to be quite subtle. On the one hand, it has played such an important role that become the basis for the whole of physics; on the other hand, when it is no longer glory, though it also suffered ridicule not willing to struggle over and over again, a face-lift, giving new meaning to their own, but still. However, can not escape the ultimate fate of being abandoned, For a while, it almost became a special term for pseudoscience.
But no matter what, the concept of ether still holds its place in the history of science. Although the optical media and absolute reference system it once represented, although it has withdrawn from the center of the stage, it has taken on a historical mission after all. To this day, whenever we mention this name, it still seems to be able to evoke our nostalgia for that golden years. It is like a yellowed photo, recording the glorious past of a nobleman. Today, as another concept, Ethernet is used to name a network protocol (Ethernet Ethernet). When we live in the e-era, every time we see this word, do we sigh? "
Man is not the designer of the universe. We just try to explain the world from our own perspective. But our explanation is not always correct. And in the process of explanation, we may need a lot of auxiliary tools. Even the old theories are replaced by stronger and more explanatory theories in the future . But this does not mean that it is meaningless. On the contrary, not a theory but a gradual one after another , in order to build the Yi Tiao road leading to the truth of the universe. Humanity is now probably still groping in the darkness of ignorance in more.
" Young people in early 1672, a fellow named Isaac Newton (Isaac Newton) because manufactured a prominent telescope and was elected to the Royal Society will be members. Newton was only 29 years old, young, is preparing to Optics and instruments are showing great feats. We know that Newton had already made deep thinking in the field of optics when his hometown in the country escaped the plague. In a letter to the secretary of the society, Henry Oldenburg, Newton once again introduced his theory of light and color, the content of which was about the dispersion experiment of light.
On February 8, this letter was read out at the Royal Society.
Its history of quantum physics, writing an interesting and exagarating of history. No history is complete without wars. Instead, it shows the conflicts and major events in the past. Of course, there is little maths. It doesn't affect the reading even if you ignore them. The author also tries to explain physics phenomenon and theories with an example, using anology in our tangible world.
As a popular science book, it is far from complicated formulas, interesting and fascinating text, which makes people linger. This book introduced me to Heisenberg, Bohr, Schrödinger, and also to another side of Einstein. Highly recommended!
This book opened my mind. The world is still the same, but how I see it is different now. While reading this book, I, a macroscopic creature, was amazed by the chaotic microscopic world. I want thank the author for giving me a glimpse of the beauty of quantum mechanics.