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The Fundamental Assumptions of Classical Physics Classical physicists had built up a whole series of assumptions which focused their thinking and made the acceptance of new ideas very difficult. Here's a list of what they were sure of about the material world ... 1) The universe was like a giant machine set in a framework of absolute time and space. Complicated movement could be understood as a simple movement of the machine's inner parts, even if these parts can't be visualized. 2) The Newtonian synthesis implied that all motion had a cause. If a body exhibited motion, one could always figure out what was producing the motion. This is simply cause and effect, which nobody really questioned. 3) If the state of motion was known at one point - say the present - it could be determined at any other point in the future or even the past. Nothing was uncertain, only a consequence of some earlier cause. This was determinism.
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4) The properties of light are completely described by Maxwell's electromagnetic wave theory and confirmed by the interference patterns observed in a simple double-slit experiment by Thomas Young in 1802. 5) There are two physical models to represent energy in motion: one a particle, represented by an impenetrable sphere like a billiard ball, and the other a wave, like that which rides towards the shore on the surface of the ocean. They are mutually exclusive, i.e. energy must be either one or the other. 6) It was possible to measure to any degree of accuracy the properties of a system, like its temperature or speed. Simply reduce the intensity of the observer's probing or correct for it with a theoretical adjustment. Atomic systems were thought to be no exception. Classical physicists believed all these statements to be absolutely true. But all six assumptions would eventually prove to be in doubt. The first to know this were the group of physicists who met at the Metropole Hotel in Brussels on 24 October 1927.

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The Fundamental Assumptions of Classical Physics

Classical physicists had built up a whole series of assumptions which focused their thinking and made the acceptance of new ideas very difficult. Here's a list of what they were sure of about the material world ...

1) The universe was like a giant machine set in a framework of absolute time and space. Complicated movement could be understood as a simple movement of the machine's inner parts, even if these parts can't be visualized.

2) The Newtonian synthesis implied that all motion had a cause. If a body exhibited motion, one could always figure out what was producing the motion. This is simply cause and effect, which nobody really questioned.

3) If the state of motion was known at one point - say the present - it could be determined at any other point in the future or even the past. Nothing was uncertain, only a consequence of some earlier cause. This was determinism.

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