Julian Schwinger Quotes

6 Sourced Quotes

Is the purpose of theoretical physics to be no more than a cataloging of all the things that can happen when particles interact with each other and separate? Or is it to be an understanding at a deeper level in which there are things that are not directly observable (as the underlying quantized fields are) but in terms of which we shall have a more fundamental understanding?

Julian Schwinger
Perhaps the most important contribution to science that the Royal Society has made in its three centuries of existence is its early role in publishing Newton's masterful account of his discoveries.

Julian Schwinger
Time appears in quantum mechanics as a continuous parameter which represents an abstraction of the dynamical role of the measurement apparatus.

Julian Schwinger
Microscopic measurement has no meaning apart from a theory, and the idealized measurement concepts that are implicit in a particular theory must be accepted or rejected in accordance with the final success or failure of that theory to fulfill its avowed aims.

Julian Schwinger
Classical mechanics is a determinate theory. Knowledge of the state at a given time permits precise prediction of the result of measuring any property of the system. In contrast, quantum mechanics is only statistically determinate.

Julian Schwinger
Mathematics is the natural language of theoretical physics. It is the irreplaceable instrument for the penetration of realms of physical phenomena far beyond the ordinary experience upon which conventional language is based.

Julian Schwinger