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Quantum Mechanics

Dr. John Wheeler summarizes Bohr's position: 'the central point and lesson of twentieth century physics'

 


 

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From the documentary "Atomic Physics and Reality": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFvJOZ51tmc

 

 

“As Bohr’s position could be summarized today, no quantum phenomenon is a phenomenon until it has been brought to close by an irreversible act of amplification, like the triggering of a Geiger counter, or the click of a photon detector, or the blackening of a grain of photographic emulsion.

“Until that happens, this phenomenon-to-be has not yet happened, is not yet a phenomenonit has no position in space, no locality in time… until [the detection] you have no right to speak of where it is or what it’s doing.

“It’s the strangest thing in this strange world, this elementary quantum phenomenon of Niels Bohr, and yet of all the things we’ve learned it is the central point and lesson of twentieth century physics… [It] does not become a definite phenomenon until the end when we by our choice of observing device… so in this sense we have become participators in the construction of the universe…”

 

 

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