Narrator: ``Now a brilliant fellow named Paul Dirac comes along and shows Heisenberg and Schroedinger's formulations are equivalent. He even formulates a relativistic equation for the wavy electron that yields a thing called SPIN, which Heisenberg's old friend Pauli uses to turn chemistry into a mere consequence of quantum physics.
Narrator: ``It all works! Unbelievably! And I mean that. Quantum mechanics now explains all the old experimental problems as well as a lot of new things, like . . . oh . . . chemistry. But what does it all mean?''
Born:
Interpretation of
fundamentally changes our notion of
quantities like position and momentum,
and forces us to think very delicately
about the role of MEASUREMENT.
``I am now convinced that theoretical physics is actual philosophy.''
Bohr: [The Copenhagen interpretation.]
Enter Einstein: ``God does not play dice.''
[Proposes experiment violating uncertainty relation.]
Bohr: [Refutes it, triumphantly using Einstein's own arguments. Draws some big nuts and bolts on the board and reminds us they're really important, even fundamental.]
``And Albert, stop telling God what to do.''