Re:Quantum Chemistry (Score 1)

How do you define real?

behave very much like the little ball we call the "proton".

If it is like a little ball, then what is it exactly? And is a little ball actually real, even if it consists of atoms and only fakes the impression of being a little ball?

I agree, that there might be a possiblity for a deterministic (hidden variable) description of quantum mechanics (e.g. Bohmian mechanics). But in that case the particles are points in some space and is a point as real as a little ball?

Physics provides a formalism for describing our environment, so referring to its (mathematical) objects as real is delusive. If you succeed in describing the reality of elements of quasitriangular Hopf algebras (that electrons are in case of the presence of a magnetical field, see Quantum groups) or integrals in complex time (Keldysh-Contour in the theory of nonequilibrum green's functions) then please let me know.

The parent modded insightful is insightful in its own way.... wait... is it real?