used to calculate wave mechanics in the sea or the dispersion of sound through the atmosphere; but to apply it to the inner functioning of the atom, to the movement of electrons, Schrödinger had needed to include an imaginary number in his formula: the square root of minus one. In practical terms, this meant that a part of the wave his equation described escaped the three dimensions of space. Its crests and troughs travelled through multiple dimensions in a highly abstract realm that could only be described by pure mathematics. Beautiful as they were, Schrödinger’s waves were not a part of
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