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Richard Phillips Feynman
Richard Phillips Feynman (May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988)
was an American theoretical physicist, known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as in particle physics for which he proposed the parton model. For contributions to the development of quantum electrodynamics, Feynman received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 jointly with Julian Schwinger and Shin'ichirō
Our daily experience is incompleteQuantum-mechanical behavior is not like anything familiar to us and it is impossible to find a complete analogy with anything already known. They [quantum particles] behave in a way that is like nothing that you have seen before. Your experience with things that you have seen before is incomplete. The behavior of things on a very tiny scale is simply different. They behave like nothing you have seen before. The difficulty really is psychological and exists in the perpetual torment that results from your saying to yourself, "But how can it be like that?" which is a reflection of uncontrolled but utterly vain desire to see it in terms of something familiar.
Electrons, when they were first discovered, behaved exactly like particles or bullets, very simply. Further research showed, from electron diffraction experiments for example, that they behaved like waves. As time went on there was a growing confusion about how these things really behaved — waves or particles, particles or waves? Everything looked like both. This growing confusion was resolved in 1925 or 1926 with the advent of the correct equations for quantum mechanics. Now we know how the electrons and light behave. But what can I call it? If I say they behave like particles I give the wrong impression; also if I say they behave like waves. They behave in their own inimitable way, which technically could be called a quantum mechanical way. They behave in a way that is like nothing that you have seen before. Your experience with things that you have seen before is incomplete. The behavior of things on a very tiny scale is simply different. … It behaves like nothing you have seen before. … The difficulty really is psychological and exists in the perpetual torment that results from your saying to yourself, "But how can it be like that?" which is a reflection of uncontrolled but utterly vain desire to see it in terms of something familiar. I will not describe it in terms of an analogy with something familiar; I will simply describe it. Three ‘x’s cannot equal one ‘x.’ Really?
Below is another example where the situation can not be described in terms of an analogy with something familiar within the current sin-damaged world:
Just look at some of the terribly confusing statements about who God is, offered at websites: “God is a Person… three Persons, and yet but one God.” It is logical nonsense to propose that God is one Person and three Persons! Three ‘x’s cannot equal one ‘x.’
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