PROBABILITIES OF THE QUANTUM WORLD

The book traces the history of ideas in the conceptual development of Quantum Mechanics.

The opening chapter talks about how in the 1960s a group of scientists in Berkeley began an ambitious project to document the experiences of people who were still alive at that time and were part of the Quantum revolution. This group included eminent historian and philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn and John Archibald Wheeler. Over the next three years this group did over 150 interviews with the remaining people.

“The quantum theory is very much like some victories” joked one of them:  ”for a month or two you are laughing and then you cry for long years.”

The book in the first two chapters tells you about struggles of Max Planck, Niels Bohr, Einstein at the beginning of the Quantum Revolution. The book has much to do with discussions of the Solvay Congress which led to many fruitful ideas of Quantum Mechanics. The historical roots of ideas of the Copenhagen interpretation are also discussed.

“Can quantum mechanics describe the fact that the electron is only approximately present at a given point and travels at a given velocity only approximately, and how far can we reduce this approximateness!”