The Ghost in the Theory

The Ghost in the Theoryor

How I Saw Things Both This Way and That

This was written when I was a student and had some illusions of poetic competence. Time has thankfully dispelled these illusions,

but at least the physics is still accurate.

The Ghost in the Theoryor

How I Saw Things Both This Way and That

This was written when I was a student and had some illusions of poetic competence. Time has thankfully dispelled these illusions,

but at least the physics is still accurate.

Mostly.

Pray, step through these ancient doors of MindTo a room set for Speeches, and therein find

The clock at a standstill, and ranged on the stageThe great men of Physics, unblemished by age

Each with a verse to tell of his deedsSo pray now be seated – the evening proceeds!

Both “the clock at a standstill” and “unblemished by age” would of course violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics, implying as they do that Time’s Arrow could in some sense be halted or even reversed. This is what we call “poetic licence”

and is allowed, even in a work about physics, as long as it is confined to the introductory verse and is adequately footnoted. The science gets better later on.

You can cheat in exams, you can cheat the taxman, you can even cheat your mother. But you can’t cheat the Second Law.

Pray, step through these ancient doors of MindTo a room set for Speeches, and therein find

The clock at a standstill, and ranged on the stageThe great men of Physics, unblemished by age

Each with a verse to tell of his deedsSo pray now be seated – the evening proceeds!

There rose to his feet quite the oldest of allAs our Host with great pride “Sir Isaac!” did call

“In my time”, quoth the doughty, “I thought myself wiseYet now I would hold that to be but disguise

For all you young striplings dare say to my faceThat all of my Laws are but one special case!”

“Young!” called the Master, and that worthy did speakOf matters concerning the trough and the peak

On the corpuscles of Newton he threw gravest doubt(Tho’ his manner towards him was courteous throughout)

“For light is a wave, and not these fool raysAs the pattern behind my Slits clearly displays!”

We paused then for lunch, and when we resumedThe Scotsman James Maxwell spoke next to the room“My life’s work, good people, has been from the start

To make One what had been distinct and apartAnd though from Sir Isaac great things we’ve heard

To prove Light’s a wave, as Young has averred!”

Our Host called out “Einstein!”, and all sat in aweAs this greatest of Scientists now took the floorBowing to Maxwell he acknowledged his Proof

But turning to Newton, cried “You have the Truth!For how can a wave such as Fresnel so likes

Cause electrons to fly from a surface it strikes?

Our Host called out “Einstein!”, and all sat in aweAs this greatest of Scientists now took the floorBowing to Maxwell he acknowledged his Proof

But turning to Newton, cried “You have the Truth!For how can a wave such as Fresnel so likes

Cause electrons to fly from a surface it strikes?

Einstein won the Nobel prize for his work on the photoelectric effect, not for his far better known work on relativity. In 1915, (the year in which the General

Theory of Relativity, arguably the crowning achievement of human thought, was published) the

Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to Lawrence and William Bragg.

Sometimes the Nobel Committee does itself no favours.

We applauded his wit, yet were left sore confusedThis paradoxical Light left us greatly confused

Elusive in nature, both wanton and shyBut then came Niels Bohr with a twinkling eye

“I Interpret it thusly” said he, with a smile“Not solid nor wave, but both all the while!”

The Solvay Conference of 1927, called to discuss the Copenhagen Interpretation of the quantum theory. Among the attendees were

Einstein, Schrödinger, Heisenberg, Dirac, de Broglie, Bohr, Planck and Marie Curie.

This may be the most intelligent group photograph ever taken by a human being.

The wise men debated from the night to the mornFrom Gamow to Feynman, from Wigner to Born

The wise men debated from the night to the mornFrom Gamow to Feynman, from Wigner to Born

We heard things Uncertain, and too much of thatWe even debated the fate of a cat!

The wise men debated from the night to the mornFrom Gamow to Feynman, from Wigner to Born

We heard things Uncertain, and too much of thatWe even debated the fate of a cat!

And the conclusion we reached, by the Light of the sun?The great work of Physics is barely begun!