And here lies the profound difference between the two approaches, for in our Newtonian world the solution of an equation of motion is a number, or a set of numbers, that define(s) the precise location of an object at a given moment in time. In the quantum world, the solution of the Schrödinger equation is a mathematical quantity called the wave function, which does not tell us the precise location of, say, an electron at a particular moment in time, but instead provides a whole set of numbers that describe the likelihood of the electron’s being found at different locations in space if we were
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