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The Rise of the New Physics - Vol I
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(Buch) |
Dieser Artikel gilt, aufgrund seiner Grösse, beim Versand als 3 Artikel!
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th e rise o f th e new physic the rise of the new physi cs volume by A. dAbro ITS MATHEMATICAL AND PHYSICAL THEORIES FORMERLY TITLED DECLINE OF MECHANISM IN TWO VOLUMES dover publications, inc. PREFACE The present century has witnessed the emergence of two grand theories of mathematical physics the Theory of Relativity and the Quantum Theory. Both theories were conceived for the purpose of coordinating certain bodies of facts which the classical theories were unable to inter pret and neither theory would have seen the day had it not been for the increased refinement of experimental measurements which rendered the disclosure of these facts possible. But although the two theories were born under similar circumstances, they soon branched out in opposite directions. The theory of relativity has developed into a doctrine whose principal field of application is found in the world of large-scale phe nomena, whereas the quantum theory has become identified with the microscopic processes of the atomic and subatomic worlds. To this extent the two theories are complementary. In this book we shall be concerned more especially with the quantum theory and with the researches under taken by physicists in the subatomic world. Probably the most remarkable discovery that has issued from these researches is that subatomic phenomena do not appear to be mere repeti tions on a microscopic scale of the macroscopic processes with which we have become familiar from our daily experience. In the subatomic world mechanical representations and classical concepts are no longer of much avail, except as props to a bewildered imagination which is unable to feel at ease in its new surroundings. But when classicalconcepts are utilized in the interpretation of subatomic phenomena, we find ourselves confronted with unexpected difficulties waves and particles seem to dissolve one into the other as though they were the same and yet not the same. If the subatomic world were neatly separated from the better-known macroscopic one, we might view the new discoveries as peculiar to the subatomic world. There would then be two physics the classical or relativistic physics of the macroscopic world and the quantum physics of the microscopic world. However, the two worlds exhibit no clear-cut separation and so we must suppose that the strange characteristics of the new world are present also in the world of our common experience. If this be the case classical physics, even in the macroscopic world, must be superseded by quantum physics. No inconsistency with the facts of observation is involved in this conclusion, for the quantum theory shows vi PREFACE that in our ordinary world the strange quantum characteristics should become obscured to such an extent that observations of far greater refine ment than we are able to perform in practice would be required to detect them. The philosophical implications of the new discoveries are still con troversial, the main disagreements centering around the status of the principle of rigorous causality. Classical scientists assumed the valid ity of this principle in connection with the evolution of inorganic systems. Doubts on its validity arose in the earlier years of this century, when the difficulty of accounting for the radiation law led Planck to propose the initial form of the quantum theory. But at that time it was thought that causal connections would bereestablished subsequently as a better under standing of quantum phenomena was obtained, and so no special promi nence was given to discussions on the merits of the causal doctrine. Then, in 1927, Heisenberg discovered his celebrated Uncertainty Relations, as a result of which he contended that a rigorously deterministic scheme could no longer be entertained in physics. Heisenberg s contention ocea-sioned a split between the leading natural philosophers... |
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