Do people understand quantum physics?

“I think I can safely say that nobody really understands quantum mechanics,” observed the physicist and Nobel laureate Richard Feynman. That’s not surprising, as far as it goes. Science makes progress by confronting our lack of understanding, and quantum mechanics has a reputation for being especially mysterious.

Can we understand quantum mechanics?

It is practically a truism that no one really understands quantum mechanics; yet quantum theory reigns as the dominant theory of the very small just as relativity does of the very large.

Do quantum physicists understand physics?

The bottom line is that quantum physicists don’t understand their subject. They’ve been shying away from understanding it for the thick end of a hundred years, and it’s got to stop, because physics is trapped in an impasse and it’s dying. Carroll has said it loud and clear in an international newspaper. The guy is bang on.

Is it true that if nobody understands quantum mechanics nobody understands it?

Carroll said until physicists answer these questions, they don’t understand quantum mechanics. And that “if nobody understands quantum mechanics, nobody understands the universe”. He’s right. After a hundred years on the job, our quantum mechanics still don’t understand their subject.

Do physicists understand their own theory?

Carroll isn’t, and quite right so. He described quantum mechanics as a black box, and said “physicists don’t understand their own theory any better than a typical smartphone user understands what’s going on inside the device”. He also said it’s surprising that physicists are OK with not understanding the most important theory they’ve got.

What is the first problem with quantum mechanics?

The first problem is where quantum mechanics uses different rules for quantum objects depending on whether they’re being observed or not. If they’re not being observed, the objects are said to exist in a superposition of different possibilities, such as being at any one of various locations.