资源描述：
《the mystery of the quantum world 2ed外语英文电子书》由会员上传分享，免费在线阅读，更多相关内容在教育资源-天天文库。
1、ChapterOneRealityintheQuantumWorld1.1ThequantumrevolutionsQuantummechanics,createdearlythiscenturyinresponsetocertainexperimentalfactswhichwereinexplicableaccordingtopreviouslyheldideas(convenientlysummarisedbythetitle‘classicalphysics’),causedthreegreatrevolutions.Inthefirstplaceitope
2、nedupacompletelynewrangeofphenomenatowhichthemethodsofphysicscouldbeapplied:thepropertiesofatomsandmolecules,thecomplexworldofchemicalinteractions,previouslyregardedasthingsgivenfromoutsidescience,becamecalculableintermsofafewfixedparameters.Theeffectofthisrevolutionhascontinuedsuccess
3、fullythroughthephysicsofatomicnuclei,ofradioactivityandnuclearreactions,ofsolid-stateproperties,torecentspectacularprogressinthestudyofelementaryparticles.Inconsequenceallsciences,fromcosmologytobiology,are,attheirmostfundamentallevel,branchesofphysics.Throughphysicstheycan,atleastinpr
4、inciple,beunderstood.Indeed,oncontemplatingthesuccessofphysics,itiseasytobeseducedintothebeliefthat‘everything’isphysics-abeliefthat,ifitisintendedtoimplythateverythingisunderstood,iscertainlyfalse,since,asweshallsee,theveryfoundationofcontemporarytheoreticalphysicsismysteriousandincom
5、prehensible.Thesecondrevolutionwastheapparentbreakdownofdeter-minism,whichhadalwaysbeenanunquestionedingredientandaninescapablepredictionofclassicalphysics.Notethatweareusing2Realityinthequantumworldtheword‘determinism’solelywithregardtophysicalsystems,withoutatthisstageworryingaboutwh
6、ichsystemscanbesodescribed;thatis,wearenothereconcernedwithsuchconceptsasfreewill.Inadeterministictheorythefuturebehaviourofanisolatedphysicalsystemisuniquelydeterminedbyitspresentstate.If,however,theworldiscorrectlydescribedbyquantumtheory,then,evenforsimplesystems,thisdeterministicpr
7、opertyisnotvalid.Theoutcomeofanyparticularexperimentisnot,eveninprinciple,predictable,butischosenatrandomfromasetofpossibilities;allthatcanbepredictedistheprobabilityofparticularresultswhentheexperimentisrepeatedmanytimes.Itisimportanttorealisethattheprobabilityaspectsthatenterheredo
