(September 7, 2023 at 5:59 pm)Simon Moon Wrote:(August 18, 2023 at 11:12 am)LinuxGal Wrote: "If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics.” - Richard P. Feynman
In actuality, I made no claim that humans completely understand QM, only that we fathom it.
In other words: we know quantum particles exist, the math that supports QM is coherent and elegant, QM explains many observations that were unexplainable with Newtonian physics, QM is often more accurate than Newtonian mechanics.
I learned yesterday that the Schrodinger equation does not predict the configuration of isomers, molecules with the same number and type of atoms but with different configurations. If a molecule is chiral we only ever see a left-handed version or a right-handed version, never a superposition of the two. In other words, we can't reduce chemistry to physics. There is no fact about something as basic as molecular structure when a group of atoms are allowed to interact in isolation.