Imaginary reality III

[TIMOTHY WAGNER <twagner@ALLTEL.NET>]

"What is unpleasant here and, indeed, directly to be objected to, is the use of

complex numbers. Psi is surely fundamentally a real function" (1) ('At the time

ES has not realized the fundamentally and, indeed, epoch-making significance of

the introduction of complex numbers into the theory as carriers of the unobservable phase information of the psi waves') (2)

 

"From June 1926 his (ES) original conviction of the primacy of wave motion as the

source of physical reality began to waver." (3)

 

"Up to now ES had been concerned that psi must be a real function. He was troubled by the i^2=-1 factors that occurred in the theory, but thought they could

be avoided by simply taking the real part, so that i^2=-1 would be merely a

convenient device for calculating as in electrical circuit analysis" (4)

 

"Quantum phenomena naturally display aspects that cannot be expressed by the

concepts of field physics." (5)

 

Then from a sample text: "With respect to hf = h^2k^2/8(pi)^2m, the only function

that retains its form whether differentiated once or twice is the exponential. Thus

psi = Aexp[i(kx-wt)]." (6)

 

Looking at (1) and (3) particularly, and looking at the e-mail, I think I have a better

understanding of how students might be addressed if they were bothered in the

first place.

                                                respectfully,           Tim Wagner

 

(1) Moore, Walter, Schrodinger Life and Thought, Cambridge, 1989, p215

       (letter to Lorentz, May 27, 1925)

(2) (3) Ibid, p216   (4) Ibid p217   (5) Ibid p222 (W. Pauli)

(6) Park, David, Intro. to Quantum Theory, McGraw-Hill, 1992