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About this quote

What does it mean?
Bell argues physicists operate classically while describing quantum phenomena subjectively through classical procedures.
In plain terms
Physicists live classically but describe quantum mechanics using classical terms and results.
What can you take from it?
Quantum mechanics is described through classical human experience.

Where it applies

  • quantum research
  • physics education
  • scientific methodology

Putting it to work

  • teach quantum as classical description
  • acknowledge observer role

Questions to consider

  • Can reality exist without observation?
  • Is classical description limiting?

Another view

It may oversimplify the independence of quantum reality.

More from John Stewart Bell

  1. The concept of 'measurement' becomes so fuzzy on reflection that it is quite surprising to have it appearing in physical theory at the most fundamental level..…

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  2. While the founding fathers agonized over the question 'particle' or 'wave', de Broglie in 1925 proposed the obvious answer 'particle' and 'wave'. Is it not cle…

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  3. Is it not good to know what follows from what, even if it is not necessarily FAPP? [FAPP is Bell's suggested abbreviation of 'for all practical purposes.'] Sup…

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