326 BELL SYSTEM TECHNICAL JOURNAL 



fact that must never be forgotten: the quantum-theory involxcs the 

 wave-theory in its root and basis, for the quantum of a given radiation 

 is defined in terms of the frequency of that radiation, and the frequency 

 is determined from the wavelength, and the wavelength is determined 

 by applying the wave-theory to measurements on interference and dif- 

 fraction patterns. Was there ever an instance in which two such 

 apparently contradictory theories were wo\en so intiniatcK' the one 

 with the otiier! 



The fusion of the theories is not likely to result from new experi- 

 mental c\idence. Indeed there are already indications that further 

 experiments will mereh' accentuate the strangeness, much as happened 

 with the numerous experiments de\ised and performed three or four 

 decades ago in the hope of settling whether the earth does or does not 

 move relatively to the aether. More probably what is required is a 

 modification, indeed a revolutionary extension in the art of thinking — 

 such a revolution as look place among a few mathematicians when non- 

 luididean geometry was established by the side of Euclidean, as is 

 taking place today among the disciples of Einstein who are striving 

 to unlearn the habitual distinctions between time and space — such a 

 revolution, to go centuries back into the past, as occurred in the minds 

 of men generally when they learned to realize that the earth is round, 

 and yet at every place upon it the sky is above and the ground is 

 below. Our descendants may think pityingly of us as we of our 

 ancestors, who could not comprehend how a man can stand upright 

 at the Antipodes. 



