Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

On 2006-01-24, silmaril wrote:

There's something... OK, there are a lot of things about quantum physics that can move you. (Usually, they move you to edge away slowly from the crazy, until you realize there's nowhere to edge away to.) After a while, say a few years, you either get used to it, or you get used to the "do the math, forget about what it means" technique, and the novelty wears off, and while the inner mental structure you've built is just as beautiful, it's not as new shiny sparkly anymore. But then you get to tell it to someone who's hearing of it for the first time. And see her eyes widen, her eyebrows rise, question marks pop over her head... and realize you must have looked exactly the same way back then.

And the questions. Oh, the questions. Rubbing the very solid surface of the table: "What do you mean... discontinuous?" Some time later, after De Broglie has visited and gone, picking up a cup in puzzlement: "This is also a wave!?" The little disbelieving shake of head turning to an accepting but amazed nod when the double slit experiment with electrons is described, the tiny bit of relief when the wavelength associated with a "real-life" sized object is calculated to demonstrate why the pens in her pencilbox don't set up interference patterns, the total attitude of "I'll know this for true but I ain't really buying it" about the whole uncertainity thing... And the understanding: "That's why every material's emission spectrum is different set of distinct lines..."

[Posting date chosen deliberately. And no, not because it's Orthodox Easter.]

[Also: the original includes footnotes, so if you need any of the references explained, go read the entire amazingly beautiful entry. Which you really want to read anyhow.]

And for my Orthodox friends: Χριστος Ανεστη! Happy Easter!