JOSH%YKTVMH.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA (07/13/85)
From: Josh Knight <JOSH%YKTVMH.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA>
The recent discussion of the reality (or lack thereof) of the wave
function, reminded me of this ditty, attributed to Erich Huckel
(the u in Huckel has an umlaut over it) circa 1926:
"Gar Manches rechnet Erwin schon
Mit seiner Wellenfunktion
Nur wissen moecht man gerne wohl
Was man sich dabei vorstellen soll"
and its translation into English by Felix Bloch, circa 1976:
"Erwin with his Psi can do
calculations quite a few
But one thing has not been seen
Just what does Psi really mean."
Taken from a commerative photograph that hung in the Stanford Physics
Library, from some function honoring Bloch, I don't remember the
occasion for the function. (NOTE: the "oe" in "moecht" should be an
umlauted "o" but that's hard to type :-)
Hey don't ask me, if they didn't know I sure don't.
Josh Knight
IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
josh@yktvmh.BITNET, josh.yktvmh.ibm-sj@csnet-relay.ARPA