Theories
Quantum Theory
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Quantum theory holds that energy is absorbed and emitted by matter only in discrete packets, called quanta, rather than continuously. It was introduced to explain the observed spectrum of radiation from heated bodies and became the starting point of quantum physics.
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Proposed Year Cross-Tradition Connections
Held Differently
Hugh Everett III, Scientists Everett's 1957 relative state formulation, the many-worlds interpretation, holds the wavefunction never collapses and every measurement outcome occurs in its own branching universe, a different account of quantum mechanics from Bohr's Copenhagen collapse rather than a claim that Bohr's equations are wrong; which interpretation is correct remains genuinely unresolved among physicists today.
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Bohr's Copenhagen interpretation, developed from the 1920s at his Copenhagen institute, holds that a quantum system's properties are indeterminate until measured and that wavefunction's collapse on measurement is the correct physical account; it remains the interpretation most often taught as standard.
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Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Associated With: Niels Bohr
Everett's 1957 relative state formulation, the many-worlds interpretation, holds that the wavefunction never collapses at all: every possible measurement outcome occurs, each in its own branching universe, which removes the special, observer-dependent role measurement plays in the Copenhagen interpretation this edge carries. Carried here as a live, unresolved foundational disagreement rather than a settled historical dispute: working physicists remain divided between Copenhagen, many-worlds and other interpretations today, and this atlas asserts no resolution.
A dissenting reading, from Hugh Everett IIIHugh Everett III (Wikipedia), Wikipedia
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