“I remember discussions with Bohr which went through many hours till very late at night and ended almost in despair; and when at the end of the discussion I went alone for a walk in the neighbouring park I repeated to myself again and again the question: Can nature possibly be so absurd as it seemed to us in these atomic experiments?” ScienceNatureDespairPhysicsExperimentsAbsurdQuantum MechanicsBohrNiels Bohr Author:Werner Heisenberg
“Every experiment destroys some of the knowledge of the system which was obtained by previous experiments.” Experiments Book:The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory Source: The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory
“The physicist may be satisfied when he has the mathematical scheme and knows how to use for the interpretation of the experiments. But he has to speak about his results also to non-physicists who will not be satisfied unless some explanation is given in plain language. Even for the physicist the description in plain language will be the criterion of the degree of understanding that has been reached.” KnowsMayHas BeensPhilosophyUseSpeakLanguageGivenUnderstandingResultsKnow HowDegreesPhysicsExperimentsSatisfiedMathematicalExplanationDescriptionInterpretationSchemesPhysicistCriteriaPlain Language Author:Werner Heisenberg
“The solution of the difficulty is that the two mental pictures which experiment lead us to form - the one of the particles, the other of the waves - are both incomplete and have only the validity of analogies which are accurate only in limiting cases.” TwoFormCasesSolutionsDifficultyWaveExperimentsAccurateParticlesIncompleteAnalogiesValidity Book:The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory Source: The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory
“What we observe is not nature itself but nature exposed to our method of questioning. Our scientific work in physics consists in asking questions about nature in the language that we possess and trying to get an answer from experiment by the means that are at our disposal.” TryingMeanScienceLanguageNatureNaturalAnswersAskingMethodPhysicsExperimentsObservationExposedQuestioningAsking Questions Author:Werner Heisenberg
