Twice upon a time in the quantum world ...

Naturally, you may wonder what this class is about? A not so short answer is to relieve the beautiful sense of confusion as expressed by those quotes:

Dr. Who refreshes his Advanced QM. Image copyright BBC

  • If [quantum theory] is correct, it signifies the end of physics as a science. /Albert Einstein/
  • Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real. /Niels Bohr/
  • Those who are not shocked when they first come across quantum theory cannot possibly have understood it. /Niels Bohr/
  • If you are not completely confused by quantum mechanics, you do not understand it. /John Wheeler/
  • I do not like [quantum mechanics], and I am sorry I ever had anything to do with it. /Erwin Schrödinger/
  • Quantum mechanics makes absolutely no sense. /Roger Penrose/
  • It is safe to say that nobody understands quantum mechanics. /Richard Feynman/
  • I am going to tell you what nature behaves like. If you will simply admit that maybe she does behave like this, you will find her a delightful, entrancing thing. Do not keep saying to yourself, if you can possibly avoid it, ‘but how can it be like that?’ because you will get ‘down the drain,’ into a blind alley from which nobody has yet escaped. Nobody knows how it can be like that. /Richard Feynman - The Character of Physical Law (Lecture 6)/