Swami Vivekanada Yoga Anusandana Samsthana BST 503 Yoga Research Foundation Science & Consciousness (Deemed University)

Science Block -2

_______________________________________________Each Soul is potentially Divine. The goal of life is to manifest that Divinity within by controlling nature internal and external. Do it by Work or Worship or Philosophy or Psychic control, by one or more or all of these and be FREE….”

a) Swami Vivekananda________________________________________________

Swami Vivekanada Yoga Anusandana Samsthana BS T 503 Yoga Research Foundation Science and Consciousness (Deemed University)

Science

Block 2

Unit 1 Transition from Philosophy to science

Unit 2 Scientific Revolution

Unit 3 Quantum Theory

Unit 4 Ancient Philosophy and Modern Physics

UNIT 1 TRANSITION FROM PHILOSOPHY TO SCIENCE

Structure

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Objectives

1.2 Transition from Philosophy to science

1.3 Christianity to Aristotle to modern Science

1.4 Summary

1.5Questions

1.0 INTRODUCTION

The main development of philosophy in Europe took place in 6th century BC. Many

philosophers came and made their contribution. Among them, few are Thales,

Heraclitus, Parmenides, Socrates and Plato. One important thing to note is that some of

their views were quite similar to our ancient philosophy. The main transition to science

took place by the effort of Aristotle in 384-322 BC and the later successor Archimedes

gave it firm foundation.

1.1 OBJECTIVES

In this unit we will see the development of philosophy and science in the early stage in

Europe.

1.2 TRANSITION FROM PHILOSOPHY TO SCIENCE

The Greeks believed in fate and laws of cause and effect. Greece was at that time not a

single country but it had several kingdoms like Sparta, Macedonia, all were city states.

And each had a king. They had very good trade relations with Egypt. Egypt was at that

time trading in slaves, captured from Ethiopia. These slaves were sent to Greece.

Therefore the Greeks gradually became lazy. The women folk had more time on their

hands. The men were neglected. The men would wonder out of their house, meet in

market places, gossip and return home. But this seemingly inconsequential fact gave rise

to great people like Aristotle, Plato and Thales.

Philosophy is not for empty stomachs. Great Philosophers need a lot of leisure time to

think. The philosophers of ancient Greece were well fed and had enough leisure .They

would go to the market place, stand on a high platform and would deliver discourses on a

subject of his interest. People would gather around him and there would be enquiries,

question and answers. The issues discussed would be the same as those of the great

Indian Rishis.

What were these issues?

Issues were, “what is the origin of the world?’’ Why are we born in this world? ‘What is

that thing in us called consciousness?’

One of the most prominent of such philosophers who gathered disciples around him was

Thales. He believed that everything in the world was made up of air. He also believed

that there was something called rebirth or reincarnation. Where did he get this idea of

rebirth from? From Egypt. The Egyptians got it from the Buddhists. The only difference

was that the Buddhists did not preserve the body, while the Egyptians preserved the body

as mummies.

He was followed by a philosopher called Heraclitus. He made a very interesting

comment. Life is double edged. There is terrible aspect called war and a benign aspect

called peace. One should accept both as inevitable. He also said that the whole world is

made up of water. His other comments are:-

Nothing in life is permanent.

Change is the rule of life.

You don’t step into the same river twice.

These comments are very similar to Vedantic comments.

He was followed by Parmenides. He accepted everything that Heraclites said. He was the

person who said there was consciousness. He said, you don’t step into the same river

twice but that applies to the water not the river. The river is abstract’.

What is there in the physical body that is abstract?

There is something in human life that is abstract called Soul! This idea was derived from

early Buddhism.

He was followed by Socrates. Socrates questioned everything. He was an analytical

Philosopher. But if everything is analyzed one loses the entity. Socrates was sentenced to

death for polluting the youth with new and revolutionary ideas and for declaring that

human beings have individual soul. He had remarked that we should not give much

importance to the body because it is like a chariot. The intelligence is the charioteer. This

idea is very close to the Upanishad message.

His most prominent disciple Plato (427-347 BC):

Plato took down the dialogues of Socrates which have been passed down to us. He made

a comment, ‘The whole world is full of idea’. This is similar to Goudapada Karika in

Mandukya Upanishad which states; ‘The whole world is the creation of the mind’.

Nobody knows where the seed of this idea came from.

Sir James Jeans: In the 20th Century a scientist and an astronomer, made the same kind of

remark. He said; ‘the whole world is nothing but a mathematical idea. If God exists he

must be a mathematician.’

What Plato said around 2400 years ago is now being echoed by modern science. Plato

commented that the whole world is made up of ideas. Then where is the reality of

tangible world. The world is unreal.

No proper study of Greek Philosophy has been made from vedantic perspective. Only the

western perspective is given to us. Up to Plato one can trace an unbroken vedantic

tradition (i.e. 4th century B.C).The major issue of philosophy being the study of

consciousness.

Aristotle (384-322 BC):

He was the first Greek who did not bother much about Philosophy. He asked; what is this

world? What is reality? He wrote a book called; “Physique’’ which later became Physics.

He is considered the king of science in Europe for a period of unbroken 2000 years.

Modern science started with Aristotle. This is the transition period.

The firm foundation to Modern Science was given by a later successor Archimedes. In

the middle of the 4th century BC; philosophers very slowly started losing interest in

philosophical speculation. Aristotle got the motivation from two people, Leucippus and

Democritus. Democritus was the first person to formulate the idea of democracy which

was later worked upon by Plato in his famous book; The Republic.

The two philosophers who began thinking in lines of Atomism were again Leucippus and

Democritus. What did the atomists actually say? Everything which is visible and tangible

is made up of atoms, the lowest indivisible particle. The statement was similar to the one

made by John Dalton thousands of years later. They also went one step ahead and

enquired if there was anything behind matter. This was the very foundation of scientific

thinking. Thales of Miletus who said that the universe is made up of one fundamental

element is the father of science. Leucippus and Democritus said the universe is made up

of fundamental entities called atoms. This is something with which Socrates and Plato did

not agree with. They said even matter is made up of ideas.

Is matter made up of atoms or is matter a set of ideas? The same controversy exists even

today. This dichotomy led to scientific enquiry.

1.3 CHRISTIANITY TO ARISTOTLE TO MODERN SCIENCE

Jesus was born – 1 CE. He lived for a period of 33 years and was crucified in CE 32-33.

A few years later, a person came to the scene called Saul, who was Jewish under Saul’s

persecution escaped to Qumran in Jordan Valley by the side of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

They were all decimated by 60C.E.

There was a power struggle between Saul who was a sycophant of the Romans and an

oppressor. He saw a vision of Christ and converted to Christianity and be became Paul.

Between him and early Christians represented by James. James was assassinated in 63

A.D. Paul took over Christianity. He started modern Christianity. He made it an

organized religion. Paul became a very powerful figure with the help of the Romans and

some political elements.

Now, Paul required a philosophical structure for Christianity to attract the people. Paul

was in a fix and did not know how to interpret the teaching of Jesus in the form of ethics,

logic and metaphysics. Therefore he took Greek philosophy from Aristotle, lock, stock

and barrel and grafted it with the teachings of Jesus. There were quite a few oppositions.

It was in the 4th century CE that the Bishop Eusebius who was in Rome played a master

stroke. The emperor at the time was Constantine. He had a wife who terrorized the early

Christians. But somehow Eusebius was able to convince Constantine to convert to

Christianity. Eusebius also went to his wife and told her that one of the basic tenets of

Christianity is rebirth. People are reborn to allow for their sins committed in their past

lives. Constantine’s wife asked a straight question. ‘will I be reborn for my sins and

tyranny?’ Eusebius had to reply in the affirmative. The queen said that she would have

nothing to do with Christianity. Fusain was in a catch 22 situation. Either he had to

practice Christianity or compromise. He compromised. What ever was found undesirable

by the royal lady in Christianity was thenceforth deleted.

Hence Aristotle’s philosophy and science was accepted and propounded by Christianity.

Although there was a person by the name of Aristarchus of Samos who had commented

about heliocentric (sun-centered universe) theory which easily explained retrograde

motion of the planets and which could not be explained by Aristotle’s physics who

considered the universe to be geo centric (earth centered). But still Aristotle’s geo centric

theory prevailed because the bible reflected the same in the chapter of Genesis.

Aristotle’s statement was that the earth was the center of the universe and everything

revolves around it. This is reflected in the Bible. God made man in his own image.

Therefore man alone has a soul. Animals and plants do not. God’s representative is man

who lives on this planet earth. Therefore this planet is the best place in the whole

universe. And that is why the earth is the center of the universe. Aristotle’s physics

completely coincided with the thinking of early Christianity. Hence his logic, physics and

ethics found acceptability. This held sway till the 15 th century, (from 4th to 15th century).

Around 1000 years. This is known as the dark ages of Science. There was no proper soil

for science to grow.

It was Ancient Greek thought which dominated Europe up until the scientific revolution.

The big issue for the Greeks was trying to explain how and why things moved. Since they

believed everything happened for a reason, they thought there had to be an explanation

for any motion at all. It was overturning this idea that was Isaac Newton's greatest

triumph.

The Impact of Aristotle: Aristotle (384-322 BCE)

Aristotle, 384-322 BCE A great thinker in ancient Greece, he set ways of thinking for

thousands of years.

He remained supreme in logic until the 19th century.

He was rediscovered in Europe in 13th century and he greatly affected scientific thought.

Science was only a part of what he did. He is also important as a founder of political

science, literary criticism, biology, pure philosophy.

The Ptolemaic system

Ptolemy (2nd Century CE)

Ptolemy, 90-168AD (Claudius Ptolemaeus) He was a Greek astronomer based in

Alexandria in Egypt.

Astronomy

Ptolemy's Almagest was basis of pre-modern astronomy. He based his system on

Aristotle's theories. [Note that Ptolemy was 400 years later than Aristotle].

Aristotle needed the Earth to be center of Universe. Ptolemy explains everything else by

cycles and epicycles - 80 in all. The whole universe revolves around the Earth.

In this system it was not quite clear what the planets and stars were. The system was quite

small. There was no real notion that the Sun was star and the Earth a planet.

1.4 SUMMARY

The simple issues of ancient Greek thoughts like “what is the origin of the world?’’ Why

are we born in this world? etc. lead them to think philosophically. The Greeks develop

the early philosophy in Europe. With the time there comes the need of science to better

understanding and direct use in physical world. Aristotle and Archimedes made good

contribution in sciences as well as philosophy. We can see the emphasis on perfection in

both Aristotle and Ptolemy; the emphasis on the perfect sphere, and perfect motion in

circles.

1.5 QUESTIONS

1a. Modern Christianity was developed by Paul and the philosophical structure was made

with the help of ___________________ logic and Greek philosophy.

1b. Egypt got the idea of rebirth from _______________ .

2a. Heraclites made a comment “ Nothing is life is permanent”.

2b. Aristotle made contribution in transition from philosophy to logic.

3a. How the Christianity accept the Aristotle philosophy?

3b. W

ho was Ptolemaic?

Answers

1. a Aristotle

1. b Buddhists

2. a True

2. b True

3. a Paul started modern Christianity. Paul required a philosophical structure for

Christianity to attract the people. Therefore he took Greek philosophy from Aristotle,

lock, stock and barrel and grafted it with the teachings of Jesus. And thus Christianity

accepted the Aristotle philosophy.

3.b Ptolemy, 90-168AD (Claudius Ptolemaeus) He was a Greek astronomer based in

Alexandria in Egypt.

UNIT 2 SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

Structure

2.0 Introduction

2.1 Objectives

2.2 Origins of the Scientific Revolution

2.3 Development of Mechanics and Thermodynamics

2.4 Summary

2.5 Questions

2.0 INTRODUCTION

The Scientific Revolution was the prelude to the wider movement we call the

Enlightenment. Why is it a "Revolution"?

It was very slow, taking almost 150 years, but it completely altered old ways of thinking.

It was also one of the most exiting adventures of the human mind.

The main revolution started with Nicholas Copernicus and Tycho Brahe. Johannes Kepler

and Galileo Galilei gave better understanding of universe and planetary motion. With the

effort of Isaac Newton the revolution accelerated due to addition of mechanics.

2.1 OBJECTIVES

In this unit we will see how scientific revolution started and proceeded.

2.2 ORIGINS OF THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543):

With Copernicus the Scientific Revolution starts.

Nicholas Copernicus: The Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies, 1543.

He was a Polish priest who studied in Renaissance Italy at the University of Padua -

Mathematics, Astronomy, Medicine and Theology made up the curriculum. The idea of a

heliocentric [sun-centered] universe was a mental breakthrough, but did not offer

explanations for the other things, such as motion, that Aristotle's' view of the world did.

Copernicus' theory was based on very conservative mathematics and not on observation

as such. Recall Platonists' obsession with simplicity and perfection. It was simpler to

explain heavenly motion if the Sun was at the center. Copernicus offered it as a

hypothesis. His way reduced the number of spheres from 80 to 34. He was still loyal to

Ptolemy's system in many ways.

Copernicus was obsessed with perfect circular motion. He was wrong; he thought that

planets moved in a perfect circle (not so), due to Platonic mathematics. But the important

thing was Copernicus' mental breakthrough. He was wrong but was the stimulus for

future scientists to come up with something better.

Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) Danish Royal Astrologer:

Brahe set new standards in observation without a telescope. (There were no street lights

or pollution and it was easier to see sky then than now.) He disbelieved Copernicus

because his observations showed that planets did not move in perfect circles.

In 1572-73 a new star appeared (the Crab Nebula?) and in 1577 a new comet. This went

right through any supposed crystal spheres. Neither event sat well with the idea of perfect

unchangeable heavens. Brahe thus junked the idea of perfect circular motion, and the idea

of fixed spheres in the heavens.

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630):

He was a student of mathematics and astronomy and a student of Brahe.

He put Brahe's observations into order. His method was to test hypothesis after

hypothesis until he came up with an answer that worked. Eventually he came up with the

idea that planets move in ellipses.

His Three Laws of Planetary Motion corrected Copernicus in light of Brahe's

observations. Note also the beginning of the use of the idea of scientists discovering laws.

Planets move in ellipses - of which Sun is one focus.

Kepler's Three Laws can be used to describe the motion of the Planets:

1. Planets move in orbits that are ellipses

2. The planets move such that the line between the Sun and the Planet sweeps out the

same area in the same area in the same time no matter where in the orbit.

3. The square of the period of the orbit of a planet is proportional to the mean distance

from the Sun cubed.

Kepler had no explanation of why this was the case. In fact he was involved in number

mysticism and explained it as part of the mystery of numbers.

The above rules were deduced empirically from the motions of the planet in the early

17th century, before Newton deduced the law of gravity and his laws of motion. When

Newton's laws are applied to the planets, Kepler's laws can be derived with certain

refinements.

The old Aristotelian system was broken, but there was no new synthesis to replaces it.

Constructing a new, equally persuasive synthesis was the achievement of the Scientific

Revolution.

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642):

He studied at Padua, which was a hotbed of scientific discussion, on both the cause of

motion and the scientific method. Galileo was also a mathematician, and was also keen

on Archimedes (who was translated in 1543).

There are two main aspects of his work to note.

Astronomy

He used a telescope for better observation c. 1609. He was not however the first to do so.

He confirmed the heliocentric system. There were also surprises, like seeing the Moon

with scars on, seeing sun spots. This was in a supposedly perfect heaven. The difference

between Earth and the heavens was disappearing.

What was really important was that he tied in astronomy to motion on Earth, which had

also been the great achievement of Aristotle's system.

Motion on Earth

Galileo also did experiments about motion on Earth. Recall Aristotle's' notion of

contiguous motion.

There is the story of Galileo dropping objects from the Leaning Tower of Pisa to see if

heavy things really did fall faster as predicted by Aristotle. (Of course not. Gravity works

on each particle separately 1591.) This is probably not true, but Galileo did argue on the

basis of tying two objects together and asking if they would fall more quickly.

There is also the story of him watching a pendulum swing in Siena Cathedral.

1638 - Discourse on Two New Sciences at first passed Church Censors.

What Galileo did here was more important than the debate over astronomy.

He imagined motion without any of the constraints it faces in the real world - a thought

experiment which breaks the mold.

He based his theories on observation, but would go beyond observation to the truth, since

he recognized the constraints on simple observation.

Notion of inertia - a body continues to move unless it is stopped - vital. Not fully

developed by Galileo. He thought motion was naturally in a circular direction, rather than

a straight line. Also he still had the old medieval idea of impetus in his head.

Galileo still did not offer a convincing explanation of heavenly motion. But his

importance was that he attacked the whole Aristotelian system. He saw the need for an

entirely new view.

Isaac Newton (1642-1727):

A professor at Cambridge, Newton was quite possibly the greatest scientist who ever

lived.  He was born the day Galileo died.

Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) and Principia Mathematica, 1687 (Mathematical Principles

of Natural Philosophy)

It brought together Galileo's discoveries about motion on Earth, and Kepler's discoveries

about motion in the heavens. He also brought together the Baconian stress on generating

laws by inductive arguing from experience and Descartes' stress on deducing new ideas

from things known well. To do this Newton had to invent calculus.

Newton provided an explanation for heavenly motion that was tied to observed properties

of motion on Earth. (Galileo + Kepler) and he generalized laws from these observations,

but based laws based on mathematics. Newton had read Descartes and in fact attacked

him, but uses his mathematical approach. (Bacon + Descartes)

A Better Synthesis than Aristotle

So at last there was a synthesis better than that provided by Aristotle. Newton accounted

for motion throughout the Universe.

Newton's explanation was based on idea of Inertial Movement and Gravity.

With the concept of inertia, you no longer had to explain motion; you only had to explain

change. All bodies moved as if every particle attracted every other particle with a force

proportional to the product of the two masses and inversely proportional to the square of

the distance between them.

1672 Jean Picard, a Frenchman observed Mars from Paris and Cayenne, and worked out

its altitude. This helped Newton in his calculations.

Newton could not explain why gravity existed. Newton still had room for God; and he

was very pious .

The Three Laws of Motion:

1. A body moves in a straight line unless impeded. ( Inertia ).

2. Every action has equal and opposite reaction.

3. Every body attracts every other body with a force proportional to the distance between.

Note that motion is normal, and does not need explaining. Also force can be conveyed

without physical touching. It is still not clear if Newton was correct here.

Newton also worked on Optics – (Opticks – 1704)

Newton was not, of course, "right". Einstein and Quantum Mechanics in the last century

have shown that, but his model was infinitely better than anything done before.

2.3 DEVELOPMENT OF MECHANICS AND THERMODYNAMICS

During the 18th century, the mechanics founded by Newton was developed by several

scientists and received brilliant exposition in the Analytical Mechanics (1788) of J. L.

Lagrange and the Celestial Mechanics (1799–1825) of P. S. Laplace. Daniel Bernoulli

made important mathematical studies (1738) of the behavior of gases, anticipating the

kinetic theory of gases developed more than a century later, and has been referred to as

the first mathematical physicist.

The accepted theory of heat in the 18th century viewed heat as a kind of fluid, called

caloric; although this theory was later shown to be erroneous, a number of scientists

adhering to it nevertheless made important discoveries useful in developing the modern

theory, including Joseph Black (1728–99) and Henry Cavendish (1731–1810). Opposed

to this caloric theory, which had been developed mainly by the chemists, was the less

accepted theory dating from Newton's time that heat is due to the motions of the particles

of a substance. This mechanical theory gained support in 1798 from the cannon-boring

experiments of Count Rumford (Benjamin Thompson), who found a direct relationship

between heat and mechanical energy.

In the 19th century this connection was established quantitatively by J. R. Mayer and J. P.

Joule, who measured the mechanical equivalent of heat in the 1840s. This experimental

work and the theoretical work of Sadi Carnot, published in 1824 but not widely known

until later, together provided a basis for the formulation of the first two laws of

thermodynamics in the 1850s by William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) and R. J. E.

Clausius. The first law is a form of the law of conservation of energy, stated earlier by J.

R. von Mayer and Hermann Helmholtz on the basis of biological considerations; the

second law describes the tendency of energy to be converted from more useful to less

useful forms.

The atomic theory of matter had been proposed again in the early 19th century by the

chemist John Dalton and became one of the hypotheses of the kinetic-molecular theory of

gases developed by Clausius and James Clerk Maxwell to explain the laws of

thermodynamics. The kinetic theory in turn led to the statistical mechanics of Ludwig

Boltzmann and J. W. Gibbs.

2.4 SUMMARY

This unit gives a brief idea of scientific revolution that turned the face of people from

philosophy to science.

2.5 QUESTIONS

1a. Every action has equal and opposite ____________ .

1b. Tycho Brahe was Danish royal ____________.

2a. Planets moves in perfect circular motion.

2b. A body moves in a straight line unless impeded.

3a. What is Scientific Revolution?

3b. Who mainly initiated the development in mechanics?

1a. Reaction

1b. Astrologer

2a. False

2b. True

3a. The Scientific Revolution was the prelude to the wider movement we call the

Enlightenment. It was very slow, taking almost 150 years, but it completely altered old

ways of thinking. It was also one of the most exiting adventures of the human mind.

3b. Isaac Newton

UNIT 3 QUANTUM THEORY

Structure

3.0 Introduction

3.1 Objectives

3.2 Quantum Theory

3.3 Connection between the history of science and philosophy

3.4 The development of quantum Mechanics

3.5 Summary

3.6 Questions

3.0 INTRODUCTION

The main pioneer of quantum theory was Max Plank. He advocated the discreet nature of

light and put the name ‘quanta’ later known as photon. Subsequently many models came

to understand atoms and composition of atoms, among them Bohr’s model will be

discussed here. With the effort of Heisenberg and Schrödinger, science has to understand

the dual nature of light and to some extent the ancient philosophy get supported. The

notion of observer and its effect on quantum particles is supported by science and to

understand it, science is also looking back the solution in ancient philosophy.

3.1 OBJECTIVES

In this unit we will see the development of quantum theory and quantum mechanics.

3.2 QUANTUM THEORY

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, a famous scientist is reputed to have

expressed sympathy for his younger colleagues in physics. He said that all the great

discoveries had already been made and that all physicists had to look forward to be

calculating known answers to a precision of one or two more decimal points. He could

not have been more wrong. Within a period of three decades, physics was to undergo one

of the most dramatic revolutions in its history. The apparently solid, dependable classical

physics-based on the mechanics of Isaac Newton and the electromagnetism of James

Clerk Maxwell--were overthrown and replaced by an entirely new view of the world. One

of the two cornerstones of this new world view was quantum theory.

The architect of this new view was the German physicist, Max Planck. The problem that

led Planck to the quantum theory was one that had puzzled his predecessors for a number

of years: black-body radiation. The term black body refers to any object that absorbs and

radiates all frequencies of light. As early as 1860, Gustav Kirchhoff, one of Planck's

teachers, had devised methods for studying the radiation emitted by a black body.

Although collecting data for this phenomenon was relatively straightforward, no one had

been able to find a formula that correctly described these data.

For a long time, Planck too was unsuccessful in producing a theory of black-body

radiation based on principles of classical physics. Finally, and somewhat reluctantly, he

adopted a radically new approach. He assumed that energy was absorbed and emitted by

a black body not in a continuous spectrum, but in tiny discrete packages to which he gave

the name quanta. The word quantum in Latin means "how much?” Furthermore, he found

that the size of a quantum depended on only one factor, the frequency of the emitted

radiation, according to the formula E = mc2. In this formula, h is a constant of

proportionality equal to 6.625 x 10-27 erg second and is now known as Planck's constant.

Planck's quantum theory was such a departure from classical physics that many scientists

refused to consider it seriously. Planck himself thought that the quantum concept might

be nothing other than a mathematical trick that happened to solve a particularly difficult

physical problem. He hoped that he might eventually find a way that the quantum

concept might be absorbed into the laws of classical physics, but he was aware of the

possible consequences of his work. He is reported to have said to his son shortly after his

discovery, "Today I have made a discovery which is as important as Newton's discovery.

The true significance of the quantum theory did not become obvious for more than a

decade. Two events were crucial to its widespread acceptance. The first was Albert

Einstein's analysis of the photoelectric effect in 1906. Einstein showed that the release of

electrons from a metal exposed to light can only be explained if one assumes that the

light exists in the form of tiny, discrete particles, which he called light quanta and are

now known as photons.

The second event was the use (by Neil’s Bohr) of the quantum concept in the

development of his theory of atomic structure in 1913. Bohr suggested that the electrons

in an atom can travel only in specific, discrete orbits around the nucleus and that they can

move from one orbit to another only with the loss and gain of discrete quanta of energy.

Few conclusions of quantum theory are as follows:

1. Matter and radiation, matter consists of atoms.

2. Light is a form of radiation

3. Anything that oscillates in the E. M. F. (electro magnetic field) is a radiation. Sun’s

light is a radiation. The heat from the OHP (Overhead projector) is also a radiation.

4. An electromagnetic radiation has a wide spectrum. At one end of the spectrum is what

is called cosmic rays. At the other end of the spectrum are the heat waves.

5. Heat wave is a radiation in the form of waves of very low energy and electromagnetic

radiation.

6. High energy radiation is very powerful and can penetrate even body cells. Cosmic rays

contained large amount of high energy radiation but it do not come on the earth because

of Ozone layer.

7. Matter is made up of atoms and on the other hand something called radiation in the

form of energy.

8. Every electromagnetic field has energy for example sunlight.

9. Matter has content while radiation has energy.

10. Quantum mechanics also deals with the matter and energy. It is basically interested in

how matter radiates e.g. glowing of tube light.

11. Light exhibit both type of characteristic called particle and wave. That means light

can exist as particle or as wave.

Major growth in quantum theory

The Bohr Model

A Planetary Model of the Atom

The Bohr Model is probably familiar as the "planetary model" of the atom illustrated in

the adjacent figure that, for example, is used as a symbol for atomic energy (a bit of a

misnomer, since the energy in "atomic energy" is actually the energy of the nucleus,

rather than the entire atom). In the Bohr Model the neutrons and protons (symbolized by

red and blue balls in the adjacent image) occupy a dense central region called the nucleus,

and the electrons orbit the nucleus much like planets orbiting the Sun (but the orbits are

not confined to a plane as is approximately true in the Solar System). The adjacent image

is not to scale since in the realistic case the radius of the nucleus is about 100,000 times

smaller than the radius of the entire atom, and as far as we can tell electrons are point

particles without a physical extent.

This similarity between a planetary model and the Bohr Model of the atom ultimately

arises because the attractive gravitational force in a solar system and the attractive

Coulomb (electrical) force between the positively charged nucleus and the negatively

charged electrons in an atom are mathematically of the same form. (The form is the same,

but the intrinsic strength of the Coulomb interaction is much larger than that of the

gravitational interaction; in addition, there are positive and negative electrical charges so

the Coulomb interaction can be either attractive or repulsive, but gravitation is always

attractive in our present Universe.)

But the Orbits Are Quantized.

The Bohr atom

The basic feature of quantum mechanics that is incorporated in the Bohr Model and that

is completely different from the analogous planetary model is that the energy of the

particles in the Bohr atom is restricted to certain discrete values. One says that the energy

is quantized. This means that only certain orbits with certain radii are allowed; orbits in

between simply don't exist.

The adjacent figure shows such quantized energy levels for the hydrogen atom. These

levels are labeled by an integer n that is called a quantum number. The lowest energy

state is generally termed the ground state. The states with successively more energy than

the ground state are called the first excited state, the second excited state, and so on.

Beyond an energy called the ionization potential the single electron of the hydrogen atom

is no longer bound to the atom. Then the energy levels form a continuum. In the case of

hydrogen, this continuum starts at 13.6 eV above the ground state ("eV" stands for

"electron-Volt", a common unit of energy in atomic physics).

Although this behavior may seem strange to our minds that are trained from birth by

watching phenomena in the macroscopic world, this is the way things behave in the

strange world of the quantum that holds sway at the atomic level.

Atomic Excitation and De-excitation

Atoms can make transitions between the orbits allowed by quantum mechanics by

absorbing or emitting exactly the energy difference between the orbits. The following

figure shows an atomic excitation cause by absorption of a photon and an atomic de-

excitation caused by emission of a photon.

Quantized energy levels in hydrogen

In each case the wavelength of the emitted or absorbed light is exactly such that the

photon carries the energy difference between the two orbits. This energy may be

calculated by dividing the product of the Planck constant and the speed of light hc by the

wavelength of the light). Thus, an atom can absorb or emit only certain discrete

wavelengths (or equivalently, frequencies or energies).

Heisenberg and Schrödinger:

Werner Heisenberg was an author of a first book by scientists on physics and philosophy

in 1930. With Heisenberg and Schrödinger very slowly science goes back into the field

of philosophy.

Until 1930, the interest was discovering to invent but in nineteen thirties scientist for the

first time asked the question, “What is the meaning of all this physics?” What is the

meaning of saying electrons vanish and reappear? What is the point in saying matter is a

wave? Is this beyond of our understanding or is there any meaning behind this whole lot?

And then Heisenberg said there is a limit to human knowledge.

Excitation by absorption of light and de-excitation by emission of light

Schrödinger said that the whole of the universe is a mere thought wave unless there is a

observer universe do not exist.

Thus slowly concept of consciousness and philosophy enter the realm of science.

3.3 CONNECTION BETWEEN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND

PHILOSOPHY:

Up to middle of the 20th century, science was materialistic. It was all about comforts. But

in 1930 basic philosophical questions were automatically addressed by science. This is

even today not clear.

Combinations of quantum theory and wave mechanics give rise to Quantum mechanics.

Later Neil’s Bohr confessed that our job is not to understand nature but only to describe

it. One cannot understand nature this, the statement is very similar to the statement in

Vedanta. The universe is Maya.

Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976)

He came up with a particular theory, for which even today no exception has been found.

If one work in the field of physics, whatever may be the area, nuclear atomic, subatomic

physics, whatever it is, whatever you do, it has to accept and has to follow a particular

principle which was enunciated by him in 1926 when he was 25 years old and that was

the uncertainty principle.

Uncertainty principle (1926)

Heisenberg was born in Bavaria, in Munich. When he became young and completed his

undergraduate studies he sifted to Goettingen. Goettingen at that time was the

international center for mathematics. Some of the great mathematicians lived there.

Heisenberg went there and became a student of very famous professor Max Born. Max

Born has a very peculiar kind of history he produce 6 students who got noble prize in

physics and Heisenberg was one of them. Heisenberg took a particular project dealing

with quantum mechanics, could not make halfway until 1924. In 1924 Louis de Broglie

came up with the theory of the wave mechanics, matter in the form of waves. The topic

given to him was to put the de Broglie hypothesis in mathematical foundations. He

started working on it and developed mathematical equations which are known as Matrix

Wave Mechanics. Matrix is nothing but the mesh of columns and rows like Microsoft

excel in tabular fashion. Matrixes are supposed to satisfy a one property known as

commutation.

A*b = b*A

This should be the expected result, but when Heisenberg wrote the equations of Matrix

Wave Mechanics, he observed something very unusual that the matrix did not follow the

commutations law. A*b-b*A = a finite quantity. Actually it should give zero. Because of

these unusual results he lost his sleep and in April 1926 started suffering from hay fever.

(Allergic fever from grass) then he was advised to go to Copenhagen in Denmark. There

he decided to work with Prof. Neil’s Bohr, but again he had a severe attack of hay

fever. Hence he was advised to go to One of Neil’s Bohr cottage. Heisenberg had no

work other than thinking until one day he comes up with a fantastic idea; He said to

himself my equations are not wrong, let’s accept the fact because these results appear to

be inevitable in quantum mechanics. Then he decided to work on it and thought to

himself what would be the consequences of these equations if I am right. That gave him

an upside down picture of physics. The whole of physics has to be rewritten. He didn’t

get sleep for three days and consulted Neil’s Bohr; he advised him publish your results

and be damned.

The results said that the claim of Laplace that the entire universe can be understood by a

super intelligence was wrong. Whatever you do, you would never be able to know to the

greatest accuracy possible what this universe is all about! There is a natural barrier

beyond which knowledge is not possible.

In the case of subatomic particles the position and moment can not be known to the same

accuracy. In the case of microscopic objects, distance to which the object is traveling can

be measured with absolute accuracy, x1 = mv1. But at subatomic label if x1 is measured

we commit a large amount of mistake in measuring mv1 (momentum) and vice Versa. If

you know and electron and direction, you don’t know where the electron is. This is not

because that we are not able to measure it accurately or we’re not in a position to design

an instrument but it is a natural law which says that there is a limit to sensory knowledge.

Philosophically he raised two issues:

Law of casualty is not valid at the subatomic level (force is the cause and motion is the

effect – Newton’s law of casualty)

At the subatomic level, these laws do not work and there is limitation to sensory

knowledge.

Why did he say that if you want to know where the object is, first of all, the object should

be visible. How can we make an object visible? The answer is by shining light on it.

Similarly to see where the electron is, one has to shine light on electron. But the moment

photon comes to electron, it knock’s it off. This is what is known as interaction. Photon

has to come and shine on the electron, in the process it comes and hits the electron. The

electron moves in one direction and the photon goes in another direction so we do not

understand the position of electron. Hence we never know the nature of subatomic

particles.

If you know a physical system whose energy can be measured to 100 % accuracy, the

time during which that energy has that value becomes infinite or hazy.

Now it becomes clear why the mind is considered as a quantum object. Try to focus your

mind and look to it. What happens? It just scatters. This is known as quantum behavior.

The important point here is - he’s not referring to inaccuracies which arise due to

instruments but inaccuracies which are inherent in nature.

Today’s biggest question is – can physics know reality at all. Heisenberg said, “no you

can not”.

Consequences

What is a vacuum? Does vacuum really exist? yes one can create a vacuum. Richard

Feynman said- If you can create an absolute vacuum, you’re going against Heisenberg.

There cannot be an absolute vacuum. It is like to reach absolute zero temperature.

As we know, atoms cannot move about but they vibrate and as the temperature becomes

lower and lower, the amplitude of vibrations become smaller and smaller. Absolute zero

temperature is where atoms are standing still. If atoms are standing still one can know

position and speed with 100% accuracy. This is against Heisenberg principle. Hence

Richard Feynman said one cannot attain absolute zero temperature or total vacuum.

Another interesting aspect: if you go to a bank where the Cashier is your friend. You

ask him for some money from the till and promised to give back the money before the

bank closes the same day. If your return the money on the time nobody will notice. This

is what happens in nature also. In nature particles come in to existence by energy from

vacuum, provided within a limited period of time the energy is giving back. And the

period of time during which the energy has to be given back is 10-43 seconds. Therefore,

Feynman says that there is nothing like a vacuum. This process has been going on all the

time.

3.4 THE DEVELOPMENT OF QUANTUM MECHANICS

By the 1920s, most scientists had accepted the quantum theory of nature and, with it,

Planck's constant as one of the fundamental constants of nature, similar to the velocity of

light and the gravitational constant. They turned their attention next to the development

of mathematical systems on which they could build a new analysis of matter and energy.

Out of that effort grew first matrix mechanics, then wave mechanics, and finally, the

overarching new approach to the study of nature known as quantum mechanics.

At the start of the twentieth century, scientists believed that they understood the most

fundamental principles of nature. Atoms were solid building blocks of nature; people

trusted Newtonian laws of motion; most of the problems of physics seemed to be solved.

However, starting with Einstein's theory of relativity which replaced Newtonian

mechanics, scientists gradually realized that their knowledge was far from complete. Of

particular interest was the growing field of quantum mechanics, which completely altered

the fundamental precepts of physics.

Particles discovered 1898 - 1964:

1900 Max Planck suggests that radiation is quantized (it comes in discrete amounts.)

1905

Albert Einstein, one of the few scientists to take Planck's ideas seriously, proposes a

quantum of light (the photon) which behaves like a particle. Einstein's other theories

explained the equivalence of mass and energy, the particle-wave duality of photons, the

equivalence principle, and special relativity.

1909

Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden, under the supervision of Ernest Rutherford, scatter

alpha particles off a gold foil and observe large angles of scattering, suggesting that

atoms have a small, dense, positively charged nucleus.

1911Ernest Rutherford infers the nucleus as the result of the alpha-scattering experiment

performed by Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden.

1912 Albert Einstein explains the curvature of space-time.

1913Neil’s Bohr succeeds in constructing a theory of atomic structure based on quantum

ideas.

1919 Ernest Rutherford finds the first evidence for a proton.

1921James Chadwick and E.S. Bieler conclude that some strong force holds the nucleus

together.

1923Arthur Compton discovers the quantum (particle) nature of x rays, thus confirming

photons as particles.

1924 Louis de Broglie proposes that matter has wave properties.

1925 (Jan) Wolfgang Pauli formulates the exclusion principle for electrons in an atom.

1925 (April)Walther Bothe and Hans Geiger demonstrate that energy and mass are conserved in

atomic processes.

1926

Erwin Schroedinger develops wave mechanics, which describes the behavior of

quantum systems for bosons. Max Born gives a probability interpretation of quantum

mechanics. G.N. Lewis proposes the name "photon" for a light quantum.

1927

Certain materials had been observed to emit electrons (beta decay). Since both the atom

and the nucleus have discrete energy levels, it is hard to see how electrons produced in

transition could have a continuous spectrum (see 1930 for an answer.)

1927

Werner Heisenberg formulates the uncertainty principle: the more you know about a

particle's energy, the less you know about the time of the energy (and vice versa.) The

same uncertainty applies to momenta and coordinates.

1928 Paul Dirac combines quantum mechanics and special relativity to describe the electron.

1930

Quantum mechanics and special relativity are well established. There are just three

fundamental particles: protons, electrons, and photons. Max Born, after learning of the

Dirac equation, said, "Physics as we know it will be over in six months."

1930Wolfgang Pauli suggests the neutrino to explain the continuous electron spectrum for

beta decay.

1931

Paul Dirac realizes that the positively-charged particles required by his equation are

new objects (he calls them "positrons"). They are exactly like electrons, but positively

charged. This is the first example of antiparticles.

1931James Chadwick discovers the neutron. The mechanisms of nuclear binding and decay

become primary problems.

1933-34Enrico Fermi puts forth a theory of beta decay that introduces the weak interaction.

This is the first theory to explicitly use neutrinos and particle flavor changes.

1933-34 Hideki Yukawa combines relativity and quantum theory to describe nuclear

interactions by an exchange of new particles (mesons called "pions") between protons

and neutrons. From the size of the nucleus, Yukawa concludes that the mass of the

conjectured particles (mesons) is about 200 electron masses. This is the beginning of

the meson theory of nuclear forces.

1937A particle of 200 electron masses is discovered in cosmic rays. While at first physicists

thought it was Yukawa's pion, it was later discovered to be a muon.

1938

E.C.G. Stuckelberg observes that protons and neutrons do not decay into any

combination of electrons, neutrinos, muons, or their antiparticles. The stability of the

proton cannot be explained in terms of energy or charge conservation; he proposes that

heavy particles are independently conserved.

1941C. Moller and Abraham Pais introduce the term "nucleon" as a generic term for protons

and neutrons.

1946-47

Physicists realize that the cosmic ray particle thought to be Yukawa's meson is instead

a "muon," the first particle of the second generation of matter particles to be found.

This discovery was completely unexpected -- I.I. Rabi comments "who ordered that?"

The term "lepton" is introduced to describe objects that do not interact too strongly

(electrons and muons are both leptons).

1947A meson that does interact strongly is found in cosmic rays, and is determined to be the

pion.

1947Physicists develop procedures to calculate electromagnetic properties of electrons,

positrons, and photons. Introduction of Feynman diagrams.

1948 The Berkeley synchro-cyclotron produces the first artificial pions.

1949Enrico Fermi and C.N. Yang suggest that a pion is a composite structure of a nucleon

and an anti-nucleon. This idea of composite particles is quite radical.

1949 Discovery of K+ via its decay.

1950 The neutral pion is discovered.

1951

Two new types of particles are discovered in cosmic rays. They are discovered by

looking a V-like tracks and reconstructing the electrically-neutral object that must have

decayed to produce the two charged objects that left the tracks. The particles were

named the lambda0 and the K0.

1952 Discovery of particle called delta: there were four similar particles (delta++, delta+,

delta0, and delta-.)

1952Donald Glaser invents the bubble chamber. The Brookhaven Cosmotron, a 1.3 GeV

accelerator, starts operation.

1953 The beginning of a "particle explosion" -- a true proliferation of particles.

1953 – 57

Scattering of electrons off nuclei reveals a charge density distribution inside protons,

and even neutrons. Description of this electromagnetic structure of protons and

neutrons suggests some kind of internal structure to these objects, though they are still

regarded as fundamental particles.

1954

C.N. Yang and Robert Mills develop a new class of theories called "gauge theories."

Although not realized at the time, this type of theory now forms the basis of the

Standard Model.

1957Julian Schwinger writes a paper proposing unification of weak and electromagnetic

interactions.

1957-59

Julian Schwinger, Sidney Bludman, and Sheldon Glashow, in separate papers, suggest

that all weak interactions are mediated by charged heavy bosons, later called W+ and

W-. Actually, it was Yukawa who first discussed boson exchange twenty years earlier,

but he proposed the pion as the mediator of the weak force.

1961

As the number of known particles keep increasing, a mathematical classification

scheme to organize the particles (the group SU(3)) helps physicists recognize patterns

of particle types.

1962Experiments verify that there are two distinct types of neutrinos (electron and muon

neutrinos). This was earlier inferred from theoretical considerations.

3.5 SUMMARY

Few things are there in which science is unable to answer the behavior of quantum

particle and it is believed that even the smallest particles are having consciousness.

3.5 QUESTIONS

1a. Heisenberg gave the principle of _____________.

1b. Due to dual nature of light, light can be a particle as well as __________.

2a. Quantum theory mainly deals with subatomic particles.

2b. In Bohr’s model, electrons revolve around nucleus.

3a. What is dual nature of light?

3b. Is absolute vacuum possible.

1a. Uncertainty

1b. Wave

2a. True

2b. True

3a. Light can be a particle as well as wave.

3b. No, it is not possible.

UNIT 4 ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY AND MODERN PHYSICS

Structure

4.0 Introduction

4.1 Objectives

4.2 Transition Period from Indian Philosophy to Greek Philosophy to modern

Science

4.3 Ancient Philosophy and Modern Physics

4.4 Summary

4.5Questions

4.0 INTRODUCTION

Vedantas are considered as the origin of philosophy in the east. In west the origin of

philosophy started very late. The main difference is in the concept of consciousness. Now

modern physics is again forcing us to look back what is consciousness.

4.1 OBJECTIVES

In this unit we will see the importence of ancient philosophy and few aspects of modern

physics.

4.2 TRANSITION PERIOD FROM INDIAN PHILOSOPHY TO GREEK

PHILOSOPHY TO MODERN SCIENCE

For the people who have studied Vedanta, Western Philosophy appears like child’s play –

scratching the surface. Western philosophy flounders in darkness because it did not

accept Super Consciousness. Consciousness changes our perception of philosophy.

Western philosophy does not accept Consciousness but puts more importence to the

material world. It is said in Vedanta that: the good lord created the human body with all

the sense organs pointing outward. Once in a way, a wise person shuts all the gates and

sees within the Divinity.

Why are Westerners fascinated by external nature and why not our ancestors? Why do

westerners always talk about the creation of the world and why for Vedatins the creation

the creation appear childish? Westerner’s science has discussed each and every minute or

rather second to second about the creation of the world.

For the eastern mystics, the world was not important, for them the inner self was reality.

For the westerners the world is real. The world was a mirage for our ancestors and they

were concerned about Pratiprasava not Prasava.

Even though Indian philosophy has influenced Greek and Egyptian philosophies, they

slowly start proceeding from introspection to the modern world. Plato was the last

philosopher to talk of immortality of the soul and Archimedes was a total materialist of

modern science. Then slowly speculations became rampant about the external world.

Why should we waste time with what the external world is all about? Why not follow our

own Vedanta, which says that tough the world is unreal, we have to live in this external

world. To study Vedanta we have to eat and for that we have to grow food and

agriculture is required, then for that we need tools and then come mechanics and we are

to know the laws of nature.

Even the highest persuits of philosophy like music, dance, drama and arts etc. requires a

way of life where we are to get rid of all the scares. That mean, when we are discussing

Vedanta, yoga and other, we should not try about how we are getting the food. Science

has to assume the existences of the external world and what the external world is made up

of is the quest of science.

When will science come to a close? Swami Vivekananda puts it in a very nice way:

“when we know that energy out of which all other energies are made and when we know

that fundamental aspect of matter of which all matter emanates, the quest has come to a

close.”

We all know famous Einstein equation,

E=mc2

Everything is energy. What is the primordial energy out of which the whole lord has

come? And this is the quest that is going on. It is in the beginning of time of all these

things that we encounter a wall and we can not penetrate the wall unless you have made a

hypothesis that there is something called consciousness which enter in to matter at that

stage. Here comes the linking of the two, i.e. the science and Consciousness.

4.3 ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY AND MODERN PHYSICS

One of the ancient cultures is the so-called Indic or Vedic. Today, the Upanishads are

accessible to everybody, and they pose very interesting questions. One of them is: 'What

is it that knowing which everything comes to be known?' The answer of the guru is:

Knowledge is of two types: parâ and aparâ (supreme knowledge and lower knowledge).

The lower knowledge includes the Veda-s, Vedânga-s, and Upanishad-s! The highest

knowledge is Self-realization.

Then comes the problem: Why is it that in spite of the scriptures and philosophies telling

us that we are not what we appear to be, and that what we see is fleeting-only an

empirical reality-we are not able to realize the transcendental reality within us? To

everyone who went to Ramana Maharshi with a question, he responded with another

question: 'Who are you?' Who are we? Our bio-data only records the name, age, sex,

address, height, weight, colour of the eyes, and so forth. Otherwise we are nobody!

The answer is given in the Katha Upanishad: The human body has a defect: the five

organs of knowledge are always turned outwards, and hence the human being is attracted

to the external world. Only the wise are bold enough to shut these organs of knowledge,

to look inward and find the inner reality. That is the distinction between ancient

philosophy and modern science.

Modern science looks out to understand the universe. The ancient wisdom says: Yes, we

are also interested in the world around us, as it has an empirical reality; we have to live in

it. But there is a greater, transcendental reality that can be understood only when we look

inward. Spirituality is the goal of ancient philosophy.

Unlike western philosophers, the yogis of ancient India say there is nothing else to be

done. When a son asks his father: 'I want to know all about Brahman; will you teach me?'

the father does not give a long lecture. He simply says: 'What is that out of which the

whole universe has come, in which it inheres, into which it dissolves? That is Brahman.'

And what is the son supposed to do? Meditate. Then he discovers, layer by layer, the

truth.

Einstein said that Sir Isaac Newton has always been the brightest jewel in the field of

science. Newton gave us a comprehensive picture of the universe that obeys natural laws.

But none of us actually perceives reality the way it is. This is a point that never occurred

to Newton. Today, physicists are thinking about it. It is through the filter of the mind that

we receive impressions from the external world. The way I look at the world is not the

way you do, because our mental processes are different. But does the universe have an

existence per se? Does it exist by itself? This is a deep philosophical problem that has

never been solved. For Newton said the external world is real; it remains real during the

time of observation; the observer does not influence it. The mathematical equations

depict a model, which is being repeatedly polished and corrected. But Newton created

confidence about understanding the universe, and was followed by a galaxy of

mathematicians, because mathematics was required to understand the external world.

The next revolution that came about was in the nineteenth century with James Clarke

Maxwell, and this was followed rapidly by other revolutionary discoveries. Very quickly

a generation gap developed between Einstein and younger scientists. One of them said:

Light sometimes behaves like matter, sometimes like a wave. Schrödinger came on the

scene and said: It is all waves-a set of waves; it is only when you look at it that it

congeals into matter. Research into the subatomic world was supported by the most

sophisticated mathematics. When Heisenberg came across the fact of an uncertainty

principle, which questions the very existence of the law of causality, he did not sleep for

three nights because he realized the consequences. He wrote to his professor, Neil’s

Bohr: 'What shall I do?' Neil’s Bohr said: 'Publish or perish.'

Schrödinger's theory amounted to saying: 'We are all mathematical waves. It is only

when the observer comes into the picture that the phenomenon automatically falls into

place. If I close my eyes, all of you are waves of possibilities. If I open my eyes, all of

you are solidified. In order to see whether this was true, a thought experiment was

generated-the famous 'double-click experiment'-and it was demonstrated once and for all

that a subatomic particle, like an electron or even a photon, behaves like a wave when it

is not being observed, and like a particle when observed. Many jokes have been made

about it: The electron is a particle on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, a wave on

Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, and Sunday is a holiday. Another one: All subatomic

particles are like school children. When the teacher is present, they behave properly;

when she is absent, they run helter-skelter, like waves. There was intense debate after

Schrödinger revolutionized our way of thinking, which made him remark: 'Had I known

what would come out of my research, I would not have touched the subject.'

Many experiments have since been performed all over the world, including psychic

experiments. Slowly, physics is gathering into its fold parapsychology also. As Hamlet

said to Horatio: 'There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in

your philosophy.' It was only in 1981 and '82 that a team of three scientists in Paris

demonstrated once and for all that Einstein was wrong about quantum mechanics: the

observer is always a part of the observation.

Bishop Berkeley's famous problem poses a very interesting situation: 'In a distant forest,

during a thunderstorm, lightning strikes a tree. As the tree falls to the ground, does it

make a noise if there is nobody to hear it?' This is very difficult to answer. Does the

phenomenon occur at all in the absence of an observer? Does the universe have an

absolute reality? Later Bishop Berkeley answered the question in his own way: 'There is

always one observer. Why do you think it has to be a human observer?' Consciousness is

the observer and influences the phenomenon. John von Neumann stated: 'When I close

my eyes, the whole world is a wave of possibilities; when I open my eyes, consciousness

collapses these waves of possibilities into reality.'

The ancient Wisdom, however, did not give importance to cognition, but to the cognizer.

The perceiver being given a lot of attention, perception and the object of perception

became secondary. But the perceiver that Vedânta speaks of is Âtman or Brahman,

whereas for a scientist it is the mind or intelligence of the observer.

The Katha Upanishad defines 'consciousness': 'That which cannot be seen by the eyes,

but because of which the eyes are able to see; that which cannot be heard by the ears, but

because of which the ears are able to hear; that which cannot be thought of by the mind,

but because of which the mind is able to think.' If the mind is the observer in an

experiment and influences the observation or the result, the mind itself is participating;

and that which gives power to the mind is the super-consciousness. It is in the light of the

super-consciousness that the individual consciousness is able to perceive. So what the

physicists are talking about is one aspect of the phenomenon, while the Vedântins are

talking about another. What needs to be done in the twenty first century is to link them.

One cannot distinguish between two electrons except by the so-called 'spin property'. Let

us assume that there are two electrons side by side with the same spin-positive or

negative. Then one starts moving to the right and the other to the left. Suppose I interfere

and change the spin of the electron on the right. What happens to the electron on the left?

Common sense says: It will go merrily on its way. Quantum mechanics says: If you

influence one, the other is also influenced. In order to test this, time intervals of the order

of nanoseconds had to be measured, which was possible in the 1980s because of the

space and atomic energy programmes and the developments in computer technology.

When two photons or light particles with the same spin or polarization go, one to the

right and the other to the left, after they have traveled five or ten meters apart, the time

taken by light to go from the right to the left is forty nano seconds. But the experiment

showed that if the polarization of the photon on the right is changed, the other one

changes in ten nano seconds. No signal has traveled; almost as if by instinct, the second

photon realizes that the first photon has changed. This experiment has been repeated all

over the world.

Niels Bohr said that the whole universe is interconnected. When you interfere with one

part of the universe, the message goes immediately to the entire universe. But we do not

know how. Twentieth century physics has been asking questions about this, and the

answer is very simple: 'I don't know.' We just do not know what is happening. The most

exasperating statement in this connection was that of John Webb, a famous

mathematician: There appears to be a conspiracy on the part of Nature not to reveal her

secrets. To quote Neil’s Bohr again: The job of quantum mechanics is not to understand

Nature, but to describe it.

La Place said: Suppose there is a super intelligence to which all the information about the

initial conditions of all objects in the universe were given, by the help of Newton's laws

of motion, it would be able to predict for ever and for ever the future motions of all these

objects. Nature would have been understood. But the twentieth century man says: 'The

job of physics is not to understand Nature, but to describe it.' No wonder today most

people are puzzled and one of them even used the word 'mâyâ': the whole universe is a

mirage; it is unreal. Shankaracharya’s philosophy points out that the world has empirical

reality, but from the transcendental plane the empirical reality is unreal; from the

empirical plane, the world is real. When one is hungry, one must go to the kitchen and

have a meal. No one can say this is all fleeting, so let me not have dinner.

Physics is the most materialistic of all sciences. Biology deals with life, psychology with

the mind, but in physics, none of these has a place. In physics, there is a cold-blooded

analysis of inanimate matter. But now people are asking: Does the electron have

consciousness?

That is the reason why the Upanishads have suddenly attracted a lot of attention. Far

behind all the things that are apparent to us, that are seen on the outside, is the deep

mystery of the universe and the external world. And it appears almost as if the secrets of

the external universe lie within, and not outside.

4.4 SUMMARY

In aspect experiment where two photons go opposite in direction and with same

polarization, if polarization of one is changed the other photon polarization also gets

changed automatically. It seems even the smallest particles like photons and electrons

also have connection or consciousness.

4.5 QUESTIONS

1a. Einstein said everything is made up of ____________.

1b. Schrödinger theory says that we all are ________________ wave.

2a. Indian philosophy is far ancient and advance than Greek philosophy.

2b. Modern physics have to accept consciousness.

3a. What is the famous quote of Neil’s Bohr about nature?

3b. What do you think, does the electron have consciousness?

1a. Energy

1b. Mathematical

2a. True

2b. True

3a. Neil’s Bohr said that the whole universe is interconnected. The job of quantum

mechanics is not to understand Nature, but to describe it.

3b. Yes, as I think.