The theory that "saved" physics was quantum mechanics, from which
an entirely new picture of the nature of atoms and of matte developed
in the first quarter of this century. In quantum mechanic matter
became only a special, condensed form of energy. The hard billiard-ball
atoms changed to standing waves like waves in a vibrating violin
string.
The question of whether atoms really were particles or waves was
rejected with a denial that the question had any meaning at the
atomic level. The change was a profound philosophical wrench for
most scientists. Although the really good physicists adopted quantum
mechanics because it explained so many things that classical mechanics
did not, the average nonscientist neither believed in nor even thought
much about quantum physics until the atomic bomb burst over Japan
in 1945.
If the twilight world of half-waves, half-particles could produce
something as awesome as an atomic bomb, then it must be real and
not just an elegant mathematical theory that physicists use to tie
their data together.
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