Ah, but you can reformulate the equations to use only real numbers. They’re
more cumbersome to use that way, but imaginary numbers aren’t required.
This means some people have been able to insist that imaginary numbers are
merely a calculational convenience without any significance in the physical
world.
For a long time, these sorts of people believed the same thing holds true
for the equations of quantum mechanics. What the authors of the article
showed is that, in that case, this isn’t true — imaginaries are required,
and therefore are “real.”
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 29 July 2023 01:30 pm (UTC)Ah, but you can reformulate the equations to use only real numbers. They’re more cumbersome to use that way, but imaginary numbers aren’t required. This means some people have been able to insist that imaginary numbers are merely a calculational convenience without any significance in the physical world.
For a long time, these sorts of people believed the same thing holds true for the equations of quantum mechanics. What the authors of the article showed is that, in that case, this isn’t true — imaginaries are required, and therefore are “real.”