subhankar's view
Quantum mechanics always attracts me like a magnet does to a piece of iron. First time I heard the name quantum physics, when I was in class IX standard. Then, I was told that there is another sub branch of physics, where Newton's idea of particle are not valid, as well as it is not directly compatible with "theory of relativity" too. Naturally, it made me very curious about quantum mechanics. Unfortunately, while growing up I didn't get one of the most powerful knowledge tool called internet, as well as due to the fact that I was taught in Bengali medium and was from a remote place, the source of knowledge was scarce. But, fortunately, in Bengali language there are some magazines like "Kishor Gyan Bigyan", "Desh" or "Kishor Bharati", those had been my sources of scientific articles.
There for the first time I came to know about Quantum Mechanics, original Copenhagen interpretations, multiple universe interpretations and a little bit String's Theory.
The propositions of the quantum mechanics are exotic and the first glance it seems to be hard to comprehend. In fact lack of true physical significance of Quantum Mechanics made it hard to be devoured. It needs an imaginative brain to properly understand the physical phenomena associated with Quantum Mechanics. So, what are the main propositions of this incomprehensible theory, that lies at the halfway between mainstream physical world and off beat world of metaphysics. Is reality we experience somehow connected to the principles and interpretations of quantum mechanics? A lot of questions, but unfortunately there are not a single theory which could satisfy those philosophical questions. The world around us is very mysterious, alluring but very difficult to comprehend. Neil's Bohr might thought that an orthodox interpretations are necessary to use the principle's of quantum mechanics in useful context, but that doesn't satisfy the philosophical thirst of human beings.
It is really impossible to visualize the concept of duality ie particle behavior as well as wave behavior of a particle as interpreted by Neils Bohr. Hence, a series of new and often radical theories are put forward to explain the phenomenon of quantum wave collapse. It is argued that when an electron moves from one place to another it exists in a superpositioned state of all the possible states. It is better to visualize this state as clouds of energy spread in the zone, but as soon as someone try to track it by a beam of photons, that superpositioned state collapse and the electron would be spotted at a single location rather than be spreaded as a clouds as per the values of probability density function in the space and this phenomenon is impossible to visualize. As a viable alternative to unify quantum mechanics and the theory of gravity, a new theory that predicts about hidden dimension of space-time geometry is introduced and named as String Theory. This string theory describes each energy-mass quanta as a nodes of strings in very micro scale, but unfortunately it doesn't predict any such kind of phenomenon that is testable, hence string theory is still regarded as a theory not a law.
for similar topic click The 3P: Philosophy, Physics and Psychology
