"One evening I reached the point where I was ready to determine the individual terms in the energy table, or, as we put it today, in the energy matrix, by what would now be considered an extremely clumsy series of calculations. When the first terms seemed to accord with the energy principle, I became rather excited, and I began to make countless arithmetical errors. As a result, it was almost three o'clock in the morning before the final result of my computations lay before me. The energy principle had held for all terms, and I could no longer doubt the mathematical consistency and coherence of the kind of quantum mechanics to which my calculations pointed. At first, I was deeply alarmed. I had the feeling that, through the surface of atomic phenomena, I was looking at a strangely beautiful interior, and I felt almost giddy at the thought that I now had to probe this wealth of mathematical structures nature had so generously spread out before me. I was far too excited to sleep, and so, as a new day dawned, I made for the southern tip of the island, where I had been longing to climb a rock jutting out into the sea. I now did so without too much trouble, and waited for the sun to rise."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Academics from GermanyNobel laureates in PhysicsPhysicists from GermanyLutheransPhilosophers from Germany
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Physics and Beyond: Encounters and Conversations (1971), p. 61.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Werner_Heisenberg
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Related Quotes
"The way in which the convergent mathematical schemes did not fulfill the requirements of relativity and quantum theor…"
"Whenever we proceed from the known into the unknown we may hope to understand, but we may have to learn at the same t…"
"The law of causality is no longer applied in quantum theory and the law of conservation of matter is no longer true f…"
"[S]ets of concepts... defined in physics. ...[F]our systems... have ...attained ...final form. The first ...Newtonian…"
"[E]ven in the most precise part of science, in mathematics, we cannot avoid using concepts that involve contradiction…"
"The existing scientific concepts cover always only a very limited part of reality, and the other part that has not ye…"
"Modern positivism...expresses criticism against the naïve use of certain terms... by the general postulate that the q…"
"The words "position" and "velocity" of an electron... seemed perfectly well defined... and in fact they were clearly …"
"Any concepts or words which have been formed in the past through the interplay between the world and ourselves are no…"
"The physicist may be satisfied when he has the mathematical scheme and knows how to use for the interpretation of the…"