My best teachers were not the ones who knew all the answers, but those who were deeply excited by questions they couldn't answer.
Brian GreeneRead
Before the discovery of quantum mechanics, the framework of physics was this: If you tell me how things are now, I can then use the laws of physics to calculate, and hence predict, how things will be later.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the predictive nature of classical physics before quantum mechanics introduced uncertainty.
Brian Greene emphasizes the revolutionary shift brought about by quantum mechanics in the field of physics. Prior to its discovery, the study of physics was based on deterministic principles that allowed for accurate predictions of future states based on current knowledge. Quantum mechanics, however, introduces inherent uncertainty and randomness, challenging the classical notions of predictability in physical systems.
Themes
Quantum MechanicsPredictabilityDeterminismPhysicsUncertainty
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a lecture about the evolution of physics.
More from Brian Greene
All quotes →All mathematics is is a language that is well tuned, finely honed, to describe patterns; be it patterns in a star, which has five points that are regularly arranged, be it patterns in numbers like 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 that follow very regular progression.
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According to inflation, the more than 100 billion galaxies, sparkling throughout space like heavenly diamonds, are nothing but quantum mechanics writ large across the sky. To me, this realization is one of the greatest wonders of the modern scientific age.
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So: if you buy the notion that reality consists of the things in your freeze-frame mental image right now, and if you agree that your now is no more valid than the now of someone located far away in space who can move freely, then reality encompasses all of the events in spacetime.
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Physicists are more like avant-garde composers, willing to bend traditional rules... Mathematicians are more like classical composers.
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