Previous - 20. "My weekend?"
The Italian Connection?
SF is full of European tourists at the moment. Mostly I hear French and German but twice in the past few days I've noticed chaotic groups of Italians. First I noticed their strange behavior: Both groups were in or near a line but not really of the line. Only after I noticed the disorder did I pay attention to the tell-tail music of their language.My thought both times was: Why didn't Italians discover quantum uncertainty? If I were teaching this subject I would be tempted to use a group of Italians (either a family or group of friends) as an example.
I'm thinking of the individuals as electrons. You might, after a period of observation, be able to describe the "shell" each individual inhabits but it would be impossible to predict exactly where they would be in the next instant. You can even demonstrate quantum tunneling as an individual suddenly strays out of their shell in an apparently random direction.
So now I come to my follow up question: Was Werner Heisenberg one of those Germans who traveled to Italy for inspiration? (Pithy Goethe quote goes here.) Did he observe Italians -- possibly even in Italy -- before his uncertainty principle came to him? I can imagine him viewing a group of Italians -- maybe even tourists like I was observing -- and thinking, "What does this remind me of?"
Italians wouldn't notice their own behavior. The English would be too bothered trying to defend their queue. The French would be too involved in some strike or scandal. So it would be left to the Germans.
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