“Can quantum mechanics represent the fact that an electron finds itself approximately in a given place and that it moves approximately with a given velocity, and can we make these approximations so close that they do not cause experimental difficulties?” FactsMovingGivenCausesDifficultyPhysicsQuantumMechanicQuantum PhysicsQuantum MechanicsElectronsVelocityApproximation Book:Gesammelte Werke Source: Gesammelte Werke
“The basic idea is to shove all fundamental difficulties onto the neutron and to do quantum mechanics in the nucleus.” IdeasDifficultyFundamentalsPhysicsQuantumMechanicQuantum PhysicsQuantum MechanicsNucleusNeutrons Author:Werner Heisenberg
“Quantum theory provides us with a striking illustration of the fact that we can fully understand a connection though we can only speak of it in images and parables.” FactsSpeakTheoryConnectionsQuantumIllustrationParablesQuantum Theory Book:Physics and Beyond: Encounters and Conversations Source: Physics and Beyond: Encounters and Conversations
“Nature allows only experimental situations to occur which can be described within the framework of the formalism of quantum mechanics” ScienceSituationQuantumMechanicFrameworkQuantum Mechanics Book:Gesammelte Werke Source: Gesammelte Werke
“Whether we electrons, light quanta, benzol molecules, or stones, we shall always come up against these two characteristics, the corpuscular and the undular.” TwoLightStonesCome UpPhysicsCharacteristicsQuantumQuantum PhysicsMoleculesElectrons Book:Physics and Beyond: Encounters and Conversations Source: Physics and Beyond: Encounters and Conversations
“It seems sensible to discard all hope of observing hitherto unobservable quantities, such as the position and period of the electron... Instead it seems more reasonable to try to establish a theoretical quantum mechanics, analogous to classical mechanics, but in which only relations between observable quantities occur.” TryingSeemsSciencePositionTheoryPeriodsRelationObservationReasonableSensibleQuantityQuantumMechanicObservingTheoreticalQuantum MechanicsElectrons Author:Werner Heisenberg
“It was about three o'clock at night when the final result of the calculation [which gave birth to quantum mechanics] lay before me ... At first I was deeply shaken ... I was so excited that I could not think of sleep. So I left the house ... and awaited the sunrise on top of a rock.” ThinkingFirstsScienceNightThreeHouseLeftSleepResultsRocksBirthLaysFinalsExcitedClockExcitementQuantumSunriseMechanicCalculationsQuantum Mechanics 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
“After the conversations about Indian philosophy, some of the ideas of Quantum Physics that had seemed so crazy suddenly made much more sense.” MadeIdeasPhilosophyTimeCrazyConversationIndiaPhysicsIndianHinduismQuantumQuantum PhysicsAncient India Author:Werner Heisenberg
