Abstract
In order to explain exactly how mathematics is gaining in general importance at the present time, let us start from a particular scientific perplexity and consider the notions to which we are naturally led by some attempt to unravel its difficulties. At present physics is troubled by the quantum theory. At present physics is troubled by the quantum theory. I need not now explain1 what this theory is, to those who are not already familiar with it. But the point is that one of the most hopeful lines of explanation is to assume that an electron does not continuously traverse its path in space.
From Science and the Modern World, Macmillan, New York, 1926, pp. 52–56.
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Whitehead, A.N. (1976). The Inapplicability of the Concept of Instant on the Quantum Level. In: Čapek, M. (eds) The Concepts of Space and Time. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 22. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1727-5_75
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1727-5_75
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