MetaFilter posts tagged with quantumphysics

The Blegdamsvej Faust

vacapinta — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 14:31:46 -0800

The year is 1932. Hitler is rising in power. Harold Urey announces the discovery of deuterium, a hydrogen isotope. James Chadwick discovers the neutron. Heisenberg receives the Nobel Prize for his work in Quantum physics. It is a miracle year in Physics, matched only by Einstein's advances in 1905. A few of the most brilliant physicists in the world decide to convene in Copenhagen and ... write a play! Written on the 100th anniversary of the death of Goethe, The Blegdamsvej Faust is a remarkable document from a turning point in Physics. Among the cast of characters: Mephistopheles: played by Wolfgang Pauli "His ability to make experiments self destruct simply by being in the same room was legendary, and has been dubbed the "Pauli effect" The Lord: played by Neils Bohr “The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.” Faust: played by Paul Ehrenfest "The physicists transform Faust’s death scene at the end of Goethe’s play into a moment of supreme bathos. Mephistopheles ushers a press photographer on stage and it is this that is Faust’s undoing. Paul Ehrenfest utters Faust’s famous dying words, just as he is about to be immortalized by the photographer: “Faust (highly excited, he takes a pose for the press photographer) To this fair moment let me say: ‘You are so beautiful – Oh, stay!’ A trace of me will linger ’mongst the Great, Within the annals of The Fourth Estate. Anticipating fortune so benign, I now enjoy the moment that is mine!”' including the characters of Oppenheimer (Oppie), Landau, Gamow, Dirac and Chadwick. The Blegdamsvej Faust was written in German. In his intimately written book, Thirty Years that Shook Physics, Gamow publishes the English translation.

Quantum Mechanics: Myths and Facts

XMLicious — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:21:29 -0800

Quantum Mechanics: Myths and Facts (pdf), a recently-updated paper on the Cornell arXiv peer-review site. By Hrvoje Nikolić of the Rudjer Bošković Institute in Croatia. Note: the presence of a paper on arXiv does not necessarily mean it has been reviewed and is not equivalent to having been published in a journal.

Psi Not?

CheeseDigestsAll — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:14:11 -0800

"You bend your words like Uri Geller's spoons", sang Toad. But how is it that science can dismiss Geller as the fraud he is without experimenting on every psychic claimant? Surely someone claiming telekinetic powers might be telling the truth? Quantum physics to the rescue.

Physics Models

shothotbot — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 19:34:55 -0800

"I am, of course, gratified that this sordid southern-hemisphere tale of sex, plagiarism, quantum mechanics, and printers could be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction." If that doesn't grab you maybe you are on the wrong internet. It is, of course, a follow up to this post: Australian actresses are plagiarizing my quantum mechanics lecture to sell printers.

My God, it's full of squeaky toys

moonbird — Mon, 14 May 2007 06:14:55 -0800

Two nice conversations between a man and his dog on the subject of quantum physics.
[many worlds interpretation, uncertainty principle]

Strange Charm

Gyan — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 15:30:36 -0800

Visualization of particle physics [via]

Confuse-a-Cat, Ltd.

moonbird — Wed, 01 Oct 2003 14:10:45 -0800

Schrödinger's famous theoretical kitty is one step closer to being/not being validated, revisiting some old conundrums and bright ideas.