Title: Einstein's 'God Does Not Play Dice' Saying Is Misunderstood
Headings: One of Einstein's most famous quotes is often completely misinterpreted
One of Einstein's most famous quotes is often completely misinterpreted
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Content: The reason for the quote is to express how bizarre quantum mechanics is as a theory. While most of the universe is deterministic and measurable, quantum mechanics says there's a world of tiny particles behind everything that's governed by total randomness. For example, a major part of quantum theory, called the Heisenberg Uncertainly Principle, says it's impossible to know both the speed and position of a single particle at the same time. So in quantum mechanics nothing can be certain, and we can only describe things in terms of probabilities. Einstein didn't like this one bit. He believed there must be some underlying laws of nature that could define particles and make it possible to calculate both their speed and position. There's no evidence of the law Einstein hoped for, and all experimental evidence suggests that quantum mechanics is real. So Einstein was probably wrong to reject the idea. However, when you try to join quantum mechanics to any other major theory in physics, like Einstein's general theory of relativity, it doesn't work. Quantum mechanics may be correct, but it's a total mystery as to how it fits in with the rest of physics.