Some notes on Constructing Reality, Marburger

Einstein discovered that while all experience would suggest it wasn't the case, it was the case that light speed stays constant no matter what. E stated we just have to accept that. Because of this fact, the special theory of relativity had to be designed to account for all the changes that had to be made to formulas that were created when we thought space and time acted more uniformly. With Einstein's theory of relativity, we now know that is not the case, so we have the special theory to re calibrate all of our formulas. With the Special theory, the formulas would now take into account "time" as a spatial dimension.

In order to deal with it, the Lorentz transformations were devised. These said that" both sizes (distances) and durations (times) change when transformed from one frame to another  (p. 25). To explain: in order to account for the fact that the speed of light does not change if one person is in one frame (say standing on the ground) and another in another frame (in an airplane), we have to adapt both distance and time to account for the speed of light staying the same. These equations are the Lorentz transformation. When objects are moving slowly (not near the speed of light) these transformations are not necessary.

During nuclear decay, the mass of the element is diminished, and thus the speed of the object has to be ramped up in order to maintain the conservation of energy. As a result, enormous energy is associated with radioactive decay (p. 26). 

Einstein wanted to remove the frame of reference of the viewer from how things were viewed. He believed that "the deep truths of nature do not depend in anyway on how we chose to view them"  (p. 33). .

Matter distorts space (like the sun distorts the line of the planets rotation). In this distorted space time, "straight" lines are actually curves because of the distortion of the planets (this is not gravity which is nothing really but a word, this is the curvature of space time).  space time geometry depends not just on mass but on the distribution of all forms of energy. All energy produces distortions in space time (and all mass is energy).  Where there is great energy density, there is greater curvature.

Unfortunately, this theory did not take into account electromagneticism so there was still not a unified field theory. 

Physicists wanted to know what the particle wave duality meant for light. Schrodinger determined the "wave function" as a way to explain the wave. From this perspective, if you want to detect an event, it is related to a corresponding set of probabilities for that event. There is a wave function for every event in the universe (p. 67). We experience the world in a continuous sensing but that is a factor of our limited sensory organs. Each experience actually has a myriad of detection events (Marburger calls these 'clicks", Bohr used the word "registrations") with their own wave function. A group of these clicks combined is what we perceive as an event--the macroscopic world made of the microscopic.(We perceive the world in a "digital" manner but it is actually analog?). 

We have microscopic "reality" at the quantum level which we can't ever see because it's all probability functions when we attempt to measure it

We have the macroscopic reality at our perception level which we can see and measure

We have the theoretical reality which is our attempt to make sense/meaning out of the other two levels.

The quantum world does not fill in all the parts of nature that seem to be missing from our direct experience (p. 70). There are three possible ways to deal with this: develop a new theory not based on probability; accept the multi or many world theory where all the possibilities are happening; of just accept the leap and move on (this is Bohr's Copenhagen approach). 

In the quantum approach, there is no room either for a particle to be existing in any given space. So, what there is is a wave function. But we can measure at the macroscopic level, particles, as long as we do not try to pinpoint them at the microscopic, quantum level which is impossible (p. 74-75).

Heisenberg's uncertainy principle builds on Schrodinger's   Heisenberg is saying that the wave function for position can be accurate but then the momentum wave function loses accuracy and vice versa. As a result, we cannot be certain of both position and momentum (p. 79).