Centenary of Quantum Physics

SciAm celebrates a centenary of quantum mechanics:

In a 1949 article celebrating Einstein’s life, quantum theory was even described as “heresy” by British mathematician and physicist Banesh Hoffmann. The word reflects scientists’ discomfort with the notion that a particle could be in two places at once. Einstein himself despised the probabilistic nature of the theory that he made vital contributions to, famously saying, “God does not play dice.”

Here is that 1949 article:

ALBERT EINSTEIN, whose 70th birthday this month is being noted throughout the civilized world, occupies a position unique among scientists He has become a legend m his own lifetime. The public adulation of him is so great that he dare not list his telephone number in the directory.

That is funny. Actually a lot of famous people had listed phone numbers. Even today, having a listed or unlisted number does not make a big differnce in unwanted calls.

It is relativity, of course, that has made Einstein’s name a household word, and there can be no question that this one revolutionary achievement has been and will continue to be the distinction that sets him apart. The theoiy of relativity has a monumental quality that places its author among the tiuly great scientists of all tune, in the select company of Isaac Newton and Archimedes. With its fascinating paradoxes and spectaculai successes it fired the imagination of the public— and until recently all but ob- scured Einstein’s many other contribu- tions to science. ...

We see nothing out of the way m the statement that Joe DiMaggio hit a home run in one baseball game at the same moment that Johnny Mize hit one in another. It does not occur to us that this implies that the phrase “the same moment” has meaning.

It seems ridiculous to raise the question.

Yet Einstein successfully challenged this attitude. Reasoning from precise experimental data, including the celebrated experiment of Michelson and Morley on the speed of light through the “ether,” he showed that we must give up, at whatever emotional cost, our belief that “the same moment” has a definite meaning. ...

The German mathematician Herman Minkowski had discovered in 1908 a striking relationship between equations of the special theory of relativity and equations used by geometers of multidimensional spaces. From this relation- ship he deduced that space and time are fused together into a single four-dimensional entity: space-time.

Actually Einstein made no reference to the Michelson-Morley experiment, and later denied that it was any influence on him. The relativity of simultaneity was explored by Poincare five years ahead of Einstein. And yes it was Minkowski who fused space and time, following the work of Poincare, not Einstein.

Here is a physics popularizer, Jim Al-Khalili, getting EInstein wrong:

Because we do have a single 4:04 interpretation. I mean when we think about Einstein developing uh relativity theory his special theory in 1905 the 4:11 mathematics for that was pretty much sorted out. people you know like Lorentz and Poincare had already developed the 4:19 equations. what they didn't have was the correct interpretation what is this telling us about reality. Einstein comes 4:27 along he doesn't come up with new mathematics, he comes up with the correct interpretation the narrative the 4:32 explanation of what this theory is telling us about the world. you know that nothing can go faster than light that 4:38 time and space must be unified into 4D space time so the inter and and Einstein is then credited with relativity theory.

No, the relativity interpretation that caught on was much closer to what Poincare said, than Lorentz or Einstein. It was Poincare who said nothing could go faster than light, and who unified into 4D space time.