When I was teaching and speaking in India I saw a furniture store with the name "Decent Furniture." I thought - what a cool name! Just give me some "decent" furniture and I'll be satisfied.
Philip Ball's "New Pursuit of Schrödinger’s Cat" is a decent article on quantum theory. Which means, I can understand parts of it. We musn't let our inability to understand quantum theory get us down.
I once heard a story about physicist Robert Oppenheimer, who was lecturing on quantum theory during its inception. He was asked by an interviewer, "I hear there's only three people (Oppeneheimer and Einstein being two of them) who understand quantum mechanics." Oppenheimer replied, "Who's the third?"
Ball's first sentence is: "Quantum mechanics is more than a hundred years old, but we still don’t understand it." He then goes on to tell us, as best he can, in decent language, the current state of understanding regarding quantum theory. But his main point is, for all physicists, there is much, much mystery here.
Richard Feynman has said, famously, “I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics.” I can understand that.
Physicist David Mermin took a longer quote of Feynman's and set it to verse:
We have always had a great deal of difficulty
understanding the world view
that quantum mechanics represents.
At least I do,
because I’m an old enough man
that I haven’t got to the point
that this stuff is obvious to me.
Okay, I still get nervous with it…
You know how it always is,
every new idea,
it takes a generation or two
until it becomes obvious
that there’s no real problem.
I cannot define the real problem,
therefore I suspect there’s no real problem,
but I’m not sure
there’s no real problem.
Why do I now want to pick up and read The Cat In the Hat?
