Something about Apologetics.

[Abracadabra]

Claiming Zeno is the father of quantum physics is pretty extraordinary.Why is this view not shared by physicists? They seem to be under the impression that honour belongs to Werner Heisenberg.(1901-1976) I suppose they are simply all wrong?

Well, there is much controversy over that. Many people would argue that Max Planck is the father of quantum physics since he's the one who first introduced the concept of the quantum to explain the ultraviolet catastrophe.

Albert Einstein ran with that and used the same idea to explain the photo electric effect.

However, if you want to get technical in terms of actually developing a rigid mathematical theory that we now call "Quantum Mechanics". Then yes, both Werner Heisenberg, and Erwin Schrodinger deserve simultaneous credit for that. One described things in terms of matrices the other in terms of waves, yet they both represent the same underlying mathematical concepts.

Many people also consider Neils Borh to be a 'Father' of quantum physics too. But I think they use the term "Father" for Borh in a different way. Borh was simply a great mentor who inspired a lot of people to work on the theory and thus he was a 'fatherly figure' in the field, more so than an actual innovator of ideas. Borh was better at interpreting the work of people like Heisenberg, Born and others.


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Without credible evidence,(say peer reviewed papers by actual physicists) I am only able to continue to consider Zeno a brilliant philosopher and logician,but not a physicist
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Yes, Zeno was a pure philosopher, and in his day that's about all he could do because he simply didn't have the technology available to test his theories.

He also participated in many different areas of philosophical thought.

None the less, his arguments concerning motion where arguments that favored the quantized (or atmos picture) of a discrete universe. And he no doubt got those ideas from Leucippus of Miletus. He was just supporting that picture and obviously that picture turned out to be the truth of reality.

So both Leucippus and Zeno were onto the correct picture of reality.

They were both my childhood heroes. Along with Newton, Einstein, Maxwell and many other scientists.

Neither Leucippus nor Zeno could be called "True Physicists" since physics didn't even exist in those days. But they were clearly thinking about the physical nature of reality and hypothesizing about it. So in that sense they were early 'physicists'.

The bottom line is that both Leucippus and Zeno were right. Our world is made of 'atoms', and even the subatomic particles have a limit to how far they can be divided. We now know that we live in a 'quantum world'.

So Zeno was right. We can call him a genius, or we can just say that he was a 'lucky philosopher' to have guessed right. But personally I think his arguments were sound (at least in terms of this particular question)

That's not to say that I would necessarily agree with any other philosophical ideas he might have had. But clearly he was right about the deepest nature of physical reality. As was Leucippus.