The phenomenon from which the strangeness of quanta derives is called “quantum superposition.” A quantum superposition is when two contradictory properties are, in a certain sense, present together. An object could be here but at the same time elsewhere. It is what Heisenberg means by saying that “the electron no longer has a trajectory”: the electron is found not to be only in one place or another. In a sense it is in both places. In the jargon, we say that an object can be in a “superposition” of positions. Dirac called this bizarre behavior the “principle of superposition.” For him it was
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