“Both matter and radiation possess a remarkable duality of character, as they sometimes exhibit the properties of waves, at other times those of particles. Now it is obvious that a thing cannot be a form of wave motion and composed of particles at the same time - the two concepts are too different” TwoDifferentSometimesMatterCharacterFormConceptsPropertyWaveObviousRemarkableRadiationParticlesDualityExhibits Book:The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory Source: The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory
“We will have to abandon the philosophy of Democritus and the concept of elementary particles. We should accept instead the concept of elementary symmetries.” ShouldPhilosophyAcceptingConceptsAbandonParticlesSymmetry 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
“[T]he atoms or elementary particles themselves are not real; they form a world of potentialities or possibilities rather than one of things or facts.” WorldRealFactsFormPossibilityPhysicsAtomsParticlesQuantum PhysicsQuantum Mechanics Author:Werner Heisenberg
“The conception of objective reality ... has thus evaporated ... into the transparent clarity of mathematics that represents no longer the behavior of particles but rather our knowledge of this behavior.” RealityScienceKnowledgeBehaviorMathematicsObjectivesClarityConceptionParticlesTransparentObjective Reality Author:Werner Heisenberg
“The incomplete knowledge of a system must be an essential part of every formulation in quantum theory. Quantum theoretical laws must be of a statistical kind. To give an example: we know that the radium atom emits alpha-radiation. Quantum theory can give us an indication of the probability that the alpha-particle will leave the nucleus in unit time, but it cannot predict at what precise point in time the emission will occur, for this is uncertain in principle.” KnowsGivingKindLawSciencePrinciplesExampleTheoryEssentialsAtomsRadiationQuantumUncertainUnitsPreciseProbabilityParticlesTheoreticalIncompleteIndicationEmissionsAlphasQuantum TheoryNucleusIncomplete Knowledge Author:Werner Heisenberg
