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From: JOSH%YKTVMH.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: The Wave Function
Message-ID: <389@sri-arpa.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 12-Jul-85 21:37:34 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.389
Posted: Fri Jul 12 21:37:34 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 17-Jul-85 07:16:42 EDT
Lines: 29

From:  Josh Knight  

The recent discussion of the reality (or lack thereof) of the wave
function, reminded me of this ditty, attributed to Erich Huckel
(the u in Huckel has an umlaut over it) circa 1926:

    "Gar Manches rechnet Erwin schon
     Mit seiner Wellenfunktion
     Nur wissen moecht man gerne wohl
     Was man sich dabei vorstellen soll"

and its translation into English by Felix Bloch, circa 1976:

    "Erwin with his Psi can do
     calculations quite a few
     But one thing has not been seen
     Just what does Psi really mean."


Taken from a commerative photograph that hung in the Stanford Physics
Library, from some function honoring Bloch, I don't remember the
occasion for the function.  (NOTE: the "oe" in "moecht" should be an
umlauted "o" but that's hard to type :-)

Hey don't ask me, if they didn't know I sure don't.

			Josh Knight
			IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
josh@yktvmh.BITNET,  josh.yktvmh.ibm-sj@csnet-relay.ARPA