MATHEMATICS COLLOQUIUM

 WHEN:
On Thursday, February 28, 2002 at 2.30PM

WHERE:
Durham Science Center, Room 255

WHAT:

Wai-Ning Mei
University of Nebraska at Omaha

will give a talk on

Abstract:
In this talk, we trace back to the starting point of modern physics. First we review the well developed "classical" physics, from which we were able to solve all the existing problems at the end of the nineteenth century. But not for long, novel phenomena surfaced one after the other, which the old principles failed to explain. Physicists were forced to adopt different way of thinking, hence gave birth to the ideas of Quantum Mechanics. Nevertheless, this new direction is not only a tool which enables us to understand the structures of atoms, molecules, nuclei, elementary particles, and solids, but also, together with the theory of Relativity, revolutionize our way of looking at the Nature. Like many great philosophical and scientific achievements, Quantum Mechanics encounters numerous strong critics. Here we briefly report the debates on the Uncertainty Principle between two giants of the twentieth century: Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr. Finally, we also mention the remarks from other founders of Quantum Mechanics, such as W. Heisenbger, P. A. M. Dirac, H. Beth, and E. Wigner, etc.