Abstract
I should like to set the stage for this meeting by exploring how the concept of probability was transformed by developments in atomic physics during 1913–1927. In outline I will proceed as follows: I will begin with a survey of the visual imagery, causality and probability of classical physics; then I turn to Niels Bohr’s 1913 theory of the atom and the emergence in 1924 of nonclassical notions of probability; the contrast between the quantum and wave mechanics in 1926; Max Born’s theory of scattering; Werner Heisenberg on fluctuations, discontinuity and probability; transformation theory and word meanings; the uncertainty principle paper; and then conclude with Niels Bohr’s concept of complementarity.
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Miller, A.I. (1990). Imagery, Probability and the Roots of Werner Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle Paper. In: Miller, A.I. (eds) Sixty-Two Years of Uncertainty. NATO ASI Series, vol 226. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-8771-8_2
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