Modern Physics from Crisis to Crisis? - by Jimena Canales 2019 - Article review

This document contains article review "Modern Physics from Crisis to Crisis?" by Jimena Canales written in 2019
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Reflection

1. The Modern in Modern Physics Page 74

What exactly is modern about modern physics?
A common way of understanding the main scientific purport of these fields has been in terms of their radical redefinition of traditional concepts of time and space.
This requires an explanation of what the traditional concept of space and time is and what the new definition is. The explanation is should include the reason.
As is well known, the theory of relativity took time to be a fourth dimension next to the three dimensions of space.
Although this insight can be found in different forms before the twentieth century (and can even be traced to ancient philosophy), Einstein’s theory of relativity introduced it alongside the more radical claim that no privileged “frame of reference” existed, that is, that for every point in space-time the laws of physics are the same, or invariant.
The problem is, that throughout the whole universe, the evolution of all identical processes is the same. That means 2H2 + O2 = 2H2O. This has nothing to do with any reference frame.
These two insights were related to the discovery of time and length dilation: Measurements of time and length were proven to vary in relation to the velocity of translation of a system in motion relative to another one.
It is important to make a distinction between cosmological time, the age of the universe and now versus clock time.
The cosmological time at this moment, througout the universe is every where the same. This time progresses every where at the same rate.
Clock time is the time we read at our (local) clock. The time we read at our (local) throughout the universe can be different.
In 1908 the mathematician Hermann Minkowski explained the importance of the theory of relativity in these terms: “Henceforth, space by itself, and time by itself, are doomed to fade away into mere shadows, and only a kind of union of the two will preserve an independent reality.”
Called space-time.
The major problem is, what is the meaning with the concepts space and time and why are they wrong. The second problem is, why is the mathematical concept space-time better? The third problem is that the original concepts space and time don't exists by them self. In fact empty space does not exist. What exists are objects. Objects also don't exist by them self. Objects exist in time.
Quantum mechanics changed our common perception of space and time in yet other ways.
We humans changed the definition of space and time. The science involved, we called Quantum mechanics.
First, the “uncertainty relation” (associated with the work of Werner Heisenberg) posed an absolute limit on the knowledge that could be obtained (non-commuting observables such as position and momentum could not be determined beyond a certain limit, Δx Δp ≥ ħ/2).
Here the same reasoning applies. The uncertainty relation is not a law of nature. There exists no physical process which is in any way is influenced by the uncertainty relation.
A whole different issue the accuracy with which all the parameters of a proces can be measured simultaneous. The answer is: They cannot.
Second, the possibility of “non-locality” and “entanglement,” showing how one particle could affect simultaneously another one separated at arbitrarily large distances, violated the theory of relativity.
It is not possible two measure two paramaters at two positions simultaneous.
A whole different issue that as a result of a reaction, a collision certain new particles are created. This implies when the same reaction is repeated the same new particles are created. Suppose those two particles are called A+ and A-. That means when the reaction is repeated and when the particle A+ is detected, we can predict that when the other particle is detected, it should be A-. What that means that except at the moment of the collision nothing else happens simulataneous. This implies when one particle is detected, at that moment the other particle is not influenced. The value that one parameter is an A+ and the other an A- is established at the moment of the collision and not when either particle is measured
Third, quantum mechanics introduced essentially discrete changes in the state of nature, called “quantum jumps,” to explain certain characteristics of atoms.
Quantum jumps have to do with the internal behaviour inside elementary particles i.e. atoms. Specific the energy of the photons created as part of a reaction or collision. Those collisions cannot be compared with collisions between stars, which are a complete different ball game.
In addition to these revolutionary claims, scientists noted that light seemed to behave as both wave and particle, leading some scientists to advocate for a more general “theory of complementarity” where every object in the universe was considered as having both particulate and wavelike qualities.
All objects which are supposed to have both particle and wavelike qualities should be classified separately. To assume that all objects in the universe fall in this class does not make sense.
Finally, by showing how performing a measurement could change the phenomenon under investigation (as in the “double-slit experiment”), quantum mechanics introduced new questions about the relation of the universe to consciousness.
Nothing of this has anything to do with consciousness, assumed to be a quality of humans.
To explain the philosophical and physical meaning of these effects, the Danish physicist Niels Bohr developed an explanatory

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framework known as the “Copenhagen interpretation,” stressing indeterminism in the laws of the universe.
The concepts determinism and indeterminism require a clear definition. To call the path of the stars in a star cluster deterministic does only make sense if it is clear which star clusters are deterministic and which are not. My understanding is that such a distinction does not exist.
Modern physics emerged from the research of many investigators across Europe.
A more detailed study of the behaviour of elementary particles, is a realistic physical scenario.
To call quantum mechanics a type of boundary is tricky.
Newton studied the behaviour of large objects. These objects are a collection of elementary particles. These large objects are also influenced by gas clouds. Newton neither included or studied these gas clouds. The behaviour of the elementary particles within, is unpredictable and chaotic.
Einstein emerged as an outsized public figure, towering above other scientists in terms of public recognition.
Okay
Max Planck, Erwin Schrödinger, Werner Heisenberg, Max Born, Pascual Jordan, Wolfgang Pauli, John von Neumann, and Paul Dirac, among others, were other key contributors to quantum mechanics.
The history of modern physics is one of the most scrutinized yet also most distorted topics in the history of science. What follows is an attempt to bring precision to some of the most controversial aspects of these revolutions in relation to intellectual thought. These topics – ideal cases for understanding the relation between theory and experiment and the relation of science to other areas of knowledge – show how the public was mobilized by a community of experts. Scientists divided their time between private research and public dissemination, promoting science as associated with moral values (objectivity, civil discourse, democracy, and anti-totalitarianism).
Understanding something, what we call knowledge, should be based on experiments.
Based on experiments and observations it is possible to devellop a theory, which is a supposed predication of the internal operation or functioning of a physical process. Such a theory requires more experiments to make it a fact or law.
--> The Turn of the Century (1898–1902)
The St. Louis World’s Fair
The Eclipse Expedition
Einstein Simplified
Differences with Lorentz
Ernst Mach, The Vienna Circle, and Logical Positivism
Anti-Semitism and Modern Physics Page 90
Bergson and Continental Philosophy
From Husserl to Heidegger page 93
Quantum Mechanics page 96
Postwar Continental Thought page 97 From Quine to Kuhn page 100

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