The greatest contradiction of contemporary physics, Albert Einstein spent half his life but could not solve it

The theory of relativity was proposed by Albert Einstein more than 100 years ago and the theory of quantum mechanics was also built with his contribution. However, during the rest of his life, Albert Einstein was unable to do what he always wanted, which was to combine the two theories together to create a larger theory called "unified field".

Relativity and quantum mechanics are the two foundations of modern physics, they govern the macroscopic and microscopic worlds respectively. But when scientists try to unify these two theories, they find that there are contradictions between them and they cannot be integrated, just as our world has two sets of theories, one governing the macroscopic world and the other governing the microscopic world.

Relativity and quantum mechanics are the two foundations of modern physics. (Illustration).

But the macro world we live in is itself made up of the fundamental particles of the micro world, there is no clear dividing line between the micro and the macro, which means that the micro world and the macro world must be unified and need to be explained by the same set of theories.

And this is also the biggest problem, no matter how hard scientists try, it is difficult to integrate the theory of relativity (general relativity) and quantum mechanics.

From a macroscopic perspective, general relativity describes the nature of gravity very clearly, believing that gravity does not really exist and is just a manifestation of the curvature of space and time. In other words, the curvature of space-time is the nature of gravity.

Any object with mass can affect the structure of space-time, and the effect of massive celestial bodies is even more obvious. Just like a trampoline, if you stand on the trampoline, the trampoline will sink, if you put a ball on the trampoline at this time, the ball will roll towards the center along the sunken trampoline.

Of course, this is just a common metaphor, in reality, space-time does not curve like this but curves towards the center of mass of the object.

At the same time, general relativity emphasizes that the structure of space-time is smooth and continuous.

But when we come to the microscopic world, things are completely different and must be explained by another set of laws, quantum mechanics.

It is difficult to integrate relativity and quantum mechanics. (Illustration).

The quantum world is neither smooth nor continuous , everything there is uncertain and it is a chaotic world that cannot be described precisely.

At the same time, in the quantum world, space and time are distorted, there is no direction as we know it, there is no up, down, left, right, and even the concept of time does not exist. You can never be sure if you are here or there, you can even be in two different places at the same time.

What's even more puzzling is that there doesn't seem to be any causality in the quantum world . To use an analogy from the macroscopic world, it's like if you decided to go to the United States tomorrow, but in fact you went to the United States the day before yesterday. In the quantum world, time is also chaotic.

The quantum world is not a smooth world. (Illustration).

The core of quantum mechanics is uncertainty , where everything does not follow normal logic . Once we observe the quantum world, the object of observation becomes determined. In other words, before observation, the quantum world is uncertain, and the act of observation causes the quantum world to change from uncertain to certain.

Let's take an example from the macro world. Your mother is cooking in the kitchen and you are playing computer games in your bedroom. Both events are certain.

But according to the uncertain interpretation of quantum mechanics, you may not be playing the game in your bedroom, but may be anywhere else, such as on the moon. And when your mother wants to see (observe) with her own eyes whether you are in the bedroom or not, your status is determined and you can only be in one place, which of course will be in the bedroom. But from a purely theoretical analysis, it is indeed possible that you are on the moon, but this possibility is very, very small and the probability can be considered zero.

Einstein also had to admit that no one in the world really understands quantum mechanics. (Illustration photo).

Don't worry, you're not the only one confused, because even physics guru Albert Einstein admitted that no one in the world really understands quantum mechanics.

Einstein spent the entire second half of his life working hard to unify general relativity and quantum mechanics, but even his half-life efforts could not complete this difficult task.

But no matter what, quantum mechanics has penetrated into our daily lives, the electronic products we often use, such as mobile phones, all contain quantum mechanical technology in the chip.

The conflict between general relativity and quantum mechanics remains unresolved to this day , which means that there must be deeper theories waiting to be discovered by scientists, and quantum gravity and string theory are both fields that have been proposed in recent decades to try to unify general relativity and quantum mechanics. Unfortunately, string theory remains largely a mathematical model and speculation, and is very difficult to verify experimentally!