* Disclaimer: In this series, we publish a summary of the most important chapters of the book (Quantum Physics: Fact or Fiction?!) by Dr. Alistair Ray, former Professor of Physics at the University of Birmingham...
* Disclaimer: In this series, we publish a summary of the most important chapters of the book (Quantum Physics: Fact or Fiction?!) by Dr. Alistair Ray, former professor of physics at the University of Birmingham.
Newton’s work and writings crystallized the importance of mathematics in understanding physics. The “laws of nature” were written in mathematical quantities to infer the details of motion in physical systems.
This objective mathematical approach to the study of natural phenomena extended to a number of scientific fields. James Clerk Maxwell showed in the 19th century that all that was known about electric and magnetic fields at the time could be deduced using only a few equations (later known as Maxwell's Equations).
It seemed to scientists that all physical phenomena were governed by Newtonian mechanics and Maxwellian electromagnetism.
It is possible to predict the future of any physical system (even the whole universe, in theory) using those laws and knowing the current state of the system. Accurate (or even approximate) calculations of the future of complex physical systems were, of course, and still are, impossible in practice. (See, for example, the difficulty of predicting the weather in Britain for more than a few days to come!) The 19th-century French philosopher Pierre Simon de Laplace once said, “It is possible to consider that the state of the universe is now the result of its past, and is the cause of its future.”
Although many physical phenomena remained poorly understood by the end of the nineteenth century, most physicists believed that there were no more fundamental natural laws, and believed that the universe was governed by deterministic laws. These ideas were then overthrown by the new scientific revolution during the first 30 years of the twentieth century. This scientific revolution (now known as quantum theory) emerged mainly after the study of electromagnetic radiation phenomena, and its great intellectual and philosophical problems (compared to the usual way of thinking) led to Einstein's statement, which has already been mentioned, and these intellectual and philosophical problems are the subject of this book. As we will see later; Quantum theory has led to the rejection of determinism, or at least to the rejection of its superficial image expressed by the phrase "Laplace"; the state of the universe is now neither a direct result of its past nor an inevitable cause of its future.
Some of the contents of quantum physics were even more influential and radical than before, as describing reality ontologically was one of the basic goals of classical physics. The classical ontological view was based on the concepts of "particles", "forces", and "fields", which interact according to known laws. In quantum theory, according to prevailing interpretations, it is impossible to adopt an ontological explanation with such consistency. Quantum theory tells us that the act of measurement or observation often causes a profound change in the state of the observed object, and that the qualities that are likely to characterize that object may depend on what is actually being measured. As a result, the qualities of a given physical system and its specific properties (such as the position or velocity of a moving particle) became called "observable", indicating that these particular qualities derive their realism from measurement or observation. Some have been driven to believe that the only truth is the observed human mind; that all other things, including the entire universe, are illusions. To avoid these results, several ontological theories have emerged that attempt to be consistent with the experimental results of quantum physics. Other hypotheses have suggested that our universe is not the only universe and that if we accept the existence of an infinite number of universes we will regain realism and determinism. Despite its obvious successes, we still need another scientific revolution. This book aims to address these and other theories while revealing their philosophical implications. Before that, it is necessary to answer the question: What is quantum physics? So in this chapter we will point out some of the ideas behind quantum physics and we will review some of its successes, and then point out the intellectual problems that exist in that theory.
There is a need for a new way of looking at things after studying the qualities of light. Before we consider these new ideas, we must first have a detailed understanding of Maxwell’s theory of light and electromagnetic waves, which we just mentioned.
Maxwell proved that at any point on an electromagnetic wave there are two fields: an electric field and a magnetic field, each of which is perpendicular to the other and also perpendicular to the direction of the wave, as shown in (picture 120). These two fields vibrate millions of times per second and change periodically along the wave. The number of these vibrations per second is called the "Frequency" (abbreviated as "Frequency").
It turns out that the "speed" of the electromagnetic wave c is equal to the product of frequency multiplication in wavelength:
c = λf
The presence of the electric field in an electromagnetic wave can be detected by measuring the difference in voltage between two points on its path. This cannot be measured directly in the case of light waves because their frequency is so high that it reaches 140 vibrations per second. A similar experiment was conducted on radio waves with a frequency of 650 vibrations per second.
By measuring these patterns, it is possible to determine the wavelength of the light used in the experiment. These measurements found that visible light (i.e., for the human eye) ranges from violet with a shorter wavelength (about 0.4 ppm) to red with a longer wavelength (about 0.7 ppm).
Another important characteristic is the intensity of the wave; in the case of light, it is what we call illumination or illumination. In technical terms, the intensity of the wave or illumination intensity is the amount of energy the wave carries per second. The intensity of the light is proportional to the square of the amplitude of the electric field, and we will use this information below.
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