雙語暢銷書《艾倫圖靈傳》第2章:下一個星期(35)
Schr?dinger's quantum theory requires 3 dimensions for every electron he considers. Of course he does not believe that there are really about 1070 dimensions, but that this theory will explain the behaviour of an electron. He thinks of 6 dimensions, or 9, or whatever it may be without forming any mental picture. If you like you can say that for every new electron you introduce these new variables analogous to the coordinates of space.
在薛定諤的量子理論中，每個電子有3個維度。他不相信真的有10^70個左右的維度，但這個理論解釋了電子的行爲。他考慮了6個、9個或其它大腦無法想象的維度，你也可以給每個新電子引入新的變量，來與空間座標相協調。
This came from Eddington's description of that other change in fundamental physical concepts, one much more mysterious than relativity. The quantum theory had done away with the billiard-ball corpuscles and the ethereal waves of the nineteenth century, and replaced both by entities which had characteristics both of particles and of waves; lumpy but nebulous.
這是愛丁頓所說的基礎物理理論中的另一場革命，比相對論更加神祕。量子理論通過模糊的波粒二象性，打消了許多爭論。
Eddington had a lot to say, for the 1920s had been a decade of rapid advance in theoretical physics, following up the spate of discoveries at the turn of the century. In 1929 Schr?dinger's formulation of the quantum theory of matter was only three years old. The two boys also read books by Sir James Jeans, the other Cambridge astronomer, and here too there were entirely new developments. It had only just been established that some nebulae were clouds of gas and stars on the margins of the Milky Way, and that others were completely separate galaxies. The mental picture of the universe had expanded a millionfold. Alan and Christopher discussed these ideas and 'usually didn't agree', wrote Alan, 'which made things much more interesting.' Alan kept 'some pieces of paper with Chris' ideas in pencil and mine in ink scrawled all over them. We even used to do this during French.'
愛丁頓有很多要說的，因爲在20年代，理論物理髮展得太快了，1929年薛定諤的量子力學方程才只有三歲。這兩個男孩，還讀詹姆士.簡爵士的書，這是劍橋的一位天文學家，這個領域也取得了全新的發展。現在人們已經知道一些星雲是氣團，而另一些是銀河邊緣的星星，還有一些則完全是獨立的星系。人們還認識到，宇宙膨脹了一百萬倍。艾倫和克里斯朵夫討論這些想法，而且提出懷疑，艾倫認爲這很有意思。他會用鉛筆把克里斯的想法寫下來，並牢牢記在心裏。
but also there were generalised noughts and crosses, a reaction involving iodine and phosphorus, and a diagram which suggested doubting Euclid's axiom that for every line there would be exactly one parallel line passing through a given point.
另外還有些圈圈叉叉，一個涉及碘和磷的反應，還有一張圖，懷疑歐幾里德的“過任意直線外任意點，有且只有一條平行線”。
Alan kept these pages, as souvenirs affectueux, although he could never express his sentiments distingués. As for serrer cordialement la main, or more – that was probably pretty firmly repressed in his mind, although soon he would write: 'There were times when I felt his personality particularly strongly. At present I am thinking of an evening when he was waiting outside the labs, and when I came too, he grasped me with his big hand and took me out to see the stars.'
艾倫保存着這些信作爲紀念，但他從來不懂得表達他的柔情。至於“愛和回憶”之類的，在他腦子裏可能受到了抑重的抑制，儘管他也在後來寫過：“有些時候，我尤其深刻地感覺到他的魅力。我總是在想，會有一個夜晚，他在實驗室外面等我，我到了之後，他用他的大手拉着我，出去一起看星星。”
