Quantum Mechanics

Historical Contingency and the Copenhagen Hegemony

Автор: James T. Cushing

Език:

Корици: С твърди корици

Издател: University of Chicago Press

Наличност: Очаква се допечатка

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Why does one theory "succeed" while another, possibly clearer interpretation, fails? By exploring tw...

Информация за книгата

Автор

James T. Cushing

Език

Английски език

Корици

Книга - С твърди корици

Издадена

1994

страници

328

EAN

9780226132020

Enbook ID

04543767

Издател

University of Chicago Press

Теглоt

622

Размери

158 x 236 x 24

Пълно описание

Why does one theory "succeed" while another, possibly clearer interpretation, fails? By exploring two observationally equivalent, yet conceptually incompatible, views of quantum mechanics, James T. Cushing shows how historical contingency can be crucial to determining a theory's construction and its position among competing views. Since the late 1920s, the theory formulated by Niels Bohr and his colleagues at Copenhagen has been the dominant interpretation of quantum mechanics. Yet an alternative interpretation, rooted in the work of Louis de Broglie in the early 1920s and reformulated and extended by David Bohm in the 1950s, equally well explains the observational data. Through a detailed historical and sociological study of the physicists who developed different theories of quantum mechanics, the debates within and between opposing camps, and the receptions given to each theory, Cushing shows that despite the preeminence of the Copenhagen view, the Bohm interpretation cannot be ignored. Cushing contends that the Copenhagen interpretation became widely accepted not because it is a better explanation of subatomic phenomena than Bohm's, but because it happened to appear first. Focusing on the philosophical, social and cultural forces that shaped one of the most important developments in modern physics, this book examines the role that timing can play in the establishment of theory and explanation.

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