The True Identity of the Quantum
An alternative history of quantum mechanics favouring Schrödinger’s continuous ontology
Introduction
It’s important to distinguish the development of two branches of quantum mechanics: the first involves the Copenhagen interpretation and the pursuit of more particles and the second, the development of technology, chemistry and biology. I have nothing but admiration for the second but am critical of the first.
In these six essays and podcasts I have tried to unravel the accepted historical account of quantum mechanics to demonstrate where, how and why the first branch of it veered off in the wrong direction down a rabbit hole of nonsense.
You may have come across the view that quantum mechanics is so crazy and complicated that no-one, not even experienced physicists can actually understand what is really happening.
Richard Feynman’s admonition to those who question quantum mechanics was ‘Shut up and calculate!’ My view is that there should be no sacred cows and that it is philosophically legitimate to examine the logical foundations of this particular branch of physics.
Subjects
About the Author
The author, Kay Strang, has degrees in Philosophy and Law and more recently in the 3rd year of an undergraduate degree in Maths and Physics realised there were flaws in the text-book account of quantum physics and decided to investigate. These essays and podcasts are the result of around three years of independent research into the transition from 19th to 20th century physics.
They are designed to be provocative and challenge the accepted narrative that is still included in University texts and popular science publications and offers an alternative approach, which is more philosophically sound, and based on a physically realistic interpretation of Schrödinger’s wave mechanics.
The Ultra Violet Catastrophe or a Storm in a Teacup
Challenges the standard historical account of the Ultra-Violet Catastrophe and shows how it may simply have been the result of using out of date mathematics: statistical mechanics imported from gas theory rather than vector calculus
Einstein’s other Blunder
Examines Einstein’s interpretation of the photo-electric effect, discovered by Hertz.