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User:Tsirel

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I am Boris Tsirelson, an experienced mathematician and less experienced wikipedian...


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Quantum mechanics is not a physical theory

So, what is quantum mechanics? Even though it was discovered by physicists, it's not a physical theory in the same sense as electromagnetism or general relativity. In the usual "hierarchy of sciences" — with biology at the top, then chemistry, then physics, then math — quantum mechanics sits at a level between math and physics that I don't know a good name for.

— Scott Aaronson, "Quantum computing since Democritus", Cambridge 2013 (p. 110).

About 0.999...

That is mathematics, of course. But it reminds me some physics. One often says that "99.9% of atoms is empty space", or "You are 99.999% Empty Space", or "99.9999999% of Your Body Is Empty Space", or "A hydrogen atom is about 99.9999999999996% empty space", and finally, "I will go further - it’s 100% space". Indeed, in physics we do not discover an infinite hierarchy of levels; rather, at some finite step we recognize that the "empty space", skipped so lightheartedly as containing "only" fields, was just the matter we are looking for. By the way, inside atom, a typical electric field strength is about 1012 V/m (volts per meter), and intensity (energy flux, irradiance) about 1020 W/m2 (watts per square metre), see here. Not at all empty space...

Oddities of mathematical terminology

Choice versus randomness

Why not a textbook

Notes for myself

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