Mortal Men and Immortal Equations

Could the juxtaposition of immortality and the transience of human life run through a graveyard? I
was tempted to embrace such a philosophical riddle when I saw the wave equation, considered to be
one of the most famous equations in modern scientific history, displayed at the grave of physicist
Erwin Schrdinger in Tirol, Austria.
Do mathematical equations, as Platonism suggests, represent timeless truths about reality? The
reverberations of this age-old debate are still heard in contemporary mathematical and philosophical
circles. Whatever be the inference of such deliberations, no one can deny the immortal nature of an
of an equation if they ever had caught a glimpse of Schrdinger's gravesite.

We don't need any introduction to recognize

the famous physics equations such as F=ma or
E=mc^2. However, the Schrdinger wave
equation, though more central to the modern
physics than these equations, is less popular
and definitely more abstract.
Look at Newton's Second Law of motion
represented by the equation F=ma, where F is
force, m is mass and a is acceleration. In
classical physics, this simple and powerful
equation describes everything that one needs to know about a physical system in terms of its motion.
However, physicists realized the limitations of classical physics when they learned about the
dynamics of the microscopic world in early 20th century. The science of the microscopic world -quantum mechanics -- demanded a different approach in reckoning the rules that govern the
evolution of the fundamental particles such as electrons over time.
To make matters worse, experiments in the late 1920s confirmed the wave-like nature of these
particles. At this point, we could suspend our instinct to know more about the wave like nature of
particles for the sake of completing the discussion on Schrdinger equation.
The following equation, discovered in 1926 by Schrdinger, represents evolution of quantum
mechanical systems such as electrons for which he shared the Nobel Prize in 1933 with physicist
Paul Dirac.

Image Credit: Rodney Jones, 2005, Randburg, South Africa

Apparently, this equation is a combination of strange symbols. To describe briefly, i is the imaginary
unit, is the reduced Planck constant, (Psi) is the wave function of the quantum system, and H (hat) is
the Hamiltonian operator. Surprisingly, the science behind flash drives, atomic clocks, lasers, solar
cells, and X-ray machines are somehow reliant on this equation.
The "wave function" represented by the Greek letter (Psi) is the solution to this equation. The
physical interpretation of wave function has always been contentious. In fact, the solution of this
equation helps us to find the probability of outcomes if the initial conditions of a system are known.
By analogy, the Schrdinger wave equation is the Newton's Second Law in quantum mechanics. We
depend on this probabilistic approach because we can't provide an exact answer about the location
or the velocity of a particle at a given time in quantum mechanics.
Contrary to popular belief, Schrdinger himself never derived the equation and it is one of the most
ontologically vague chapters in science history. It has been assumed that Schrdinger played with
equations until he found something which worked.
"Where did we get that [Schrdinger equation] from? It's not possible to derive it from anything you
know. It came out of the mind of Schrdinger," physicist Richard Feynman remarked in his Lectures
on Physics.
I do not know whether equations vanish in mathematical wilderness or survive and thrive forever.
Yet, the Schrodinger equation is a testament to the triumph of mathematical equations over the

transitory human life. No wonder many physicists consider this equation as the Mona Lisa of
physics, a portrait that displays a mysterious state-the superposition of joy and grief.
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