My best teachers were not the ones who knew all the answers, but those who were deeply excited by questions they couldn't answer.
Brian GreeneRead
Quantum mechanics broke the mold of the previous framework, classical mechanics, by establishing that the predictions of science are necessarily probabilistic.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Quantum mechanics introduced a new way of understanding the natural world that contrasts with classical mechanics, highlighting uncertainty in predictions.
This quote by Brian Greene emphasizes the revolutionary shift brought about by quantum mechanics in the field of physics. Unlike classical mechanics, which depended on deterministic predictions about physical systems, quantum mechanics reveals that nature is fundamentally probabilistic, meaning that outcomes cannot be precisely determined but are instead described in terms of likelihoods. This change not only transformed scientific thought but also deepened our understanding of the underlying principles governing the universe.
Themes
Quantum MechanicsProbabilityScienceClassical MechanicsUncertainty
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about the impact of quantum mechanics on modern technology.
More from Brian Greene
All quotes βAll mathematics is is a language that is well tuned, finely honed, to describe patterns; be it patterns in a star, which has five points that are regularly arranged, be it patterns in numbers like 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 that follow very regular progression.
Brian GreeneRead
According to inflation, the more than 100 billion galaxies, sparkling throughout space like heavenly diamonds, are nothing but quantum mechanics writ large across the sky. To me, this realization is one of the greatest wonders of the modern scientific age.
Brian GreeneRead
So: if you buy the notion that reality consists of the things in your freeze-frame mental image right now, and if you agree that your now is no more valid than the now of someone located far away in space who can move freely, then reality encompasses all of the events in spacetime.
Brian GreeneRead
Black holes, we all know, are these regions where if an object falls in, it can't get out, but the puzzle that many struggled with over the decades is, what happens to the information that an object contains when it falls into a black hole. Is it simply lost?
Brian GreeneRead
Physicists are more like avant-garde composers, willing to bend traditional rules... Mathematicians are more like classical composers.
Brian GreeneRead
Similar quotes
Science does not aim at establishing immutable truths and eternal dogmas; its aim is to approach the truth by successive approximations, without claiming that at any stage final and complete accuracy has been achieved.
Bertrand RussellRead
That is the logical tight-rope on which we have to walk if we wish to interpret nature.
Richard P. FeynmanRead
If ever there was a slamming of the door in the face of constructive investigation, it is the word miracle. To a medieval peasant, a radio would have seemed like a miracle.
Richard DawkinsRead
In my studies of astronomy and philosophy I hold this opinion about the universe, that the Sun remains fixed in the centre of the circle of heavenly bodies, without changing its place; and the Earth, turning upon itself, moves round the Sun.
Galileo GalileiRead
By refocusing our space program on Mars for America's future, we can restore the sense of wonder and adventure in space exploration that we knew in the summer of 1969. We won the moon race; now it's time for us to live and work on Mars, first on its moons and then on its surface.
Buzz AldrinRead
I don't know much about climate change. But I'm pretty sure we better figure out what to do to lessen its impact - at least its health impact - and that's not going to happen unless you have a lot of young talent interested in these topics.
Paul FarmerRead