Notes & Queries: Is it OK not to believe in quantum physics?

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Albert Einstein at the blackboard
Unbelievable! Albert Einstein, who famously didn't believe in quantum mechanics. Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis


Quantum mechanics uniquely and accurately explains the chemical and electrical properties of the elements, so to claim you do not believe it is to claim disbelief in your own existence. Since writing to Notes & Queries is evidence otherwise, it clearly doesn't matter.

David Lovelace, Norton Canon, Hereford

Not as long as quantum physics believes in you.

Marc Wakeham, Cardiff

That's OK; in a parallel universe you both understand and believe in quantum physics.


I do understand quantum physics but I don't believe in it. So that probably evens things out.


I think the short answer is no, it doesn't matter. You are free to choose what you believe in and I expect the vast majority of subatomic particles will be indifferent to your views on quantum physics.

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The difference between science and both politics and religion is that it doesn't require followers or believers. If it's true then it's true, even if no one believes it's true. If it's false, then all the believers in the world won't make it true. So far as believing in quantum physics, it doesn't matter at all, as long as you aren't a science teacher or a designer of integrated circuits, because quantum physics operates at the subatomic level. But your computer wouldn't work if quantum physics wasn't true, just as your satnav wouldn't work if Einstein's theory of special relativity was wrong.


When do we start to become old? And when do we cease to be young? Are they the same thing?

It's so true that over a certain age you "have a fall" rather than fall over, and wonder what else you can do while you're down there (N&Q, 6 December). I am oldish and disabled, and, in agony after a bad fall in the bathroom, before struggling to my feet I wiped round the skirting boards. My most recent one (luckily there are few) in the bedroom saw me tidying up things under the bed I didn't know were there.


More than half of the people on the bus are younger (N&Q, 6 December)? To reverse the ageing process, simply move to Bexhill – even in your 60s, you'll still be one of the youngest on the bus.

David Robinson, East Sussex

In Spain, a lot of people consider that the first time you get spoken to by a younger person using the formal "usted" form is a moment that indicates that, if not old, then you're not young any more. A sign of even greater age and infirmity is the first time somebody offers you their seat on the tube.


You are old when you look around at a funeral and instead of thinking: "I'll be at the funeral of these people one day" you think: "These people will be at my funeral one day"

Dave Heade, Faringdon, Oxon

When we start repeating anecdotes, unaware that we may have inflicted them on our audience before.


If you feel flattered when people think you are older than you are, you are young. Once you feel flattered when people think you are younger than you are – you are old.


Why are turkeys' eggs not distributed, sold and eaten in the same way as hens' eggs?

Chickens lay roughly twice as many eggs as turkeys and are much smaller, so require less room and eat far less. You don't find turkeys stacked five high in cages like chickens, so the economics just don't work.


I don't know why turkey eggs are not usually available for culinary purposes, but I suggest that if you do come across them, be wary. Charles Manners, fourth Duke of Rutland, an 18th-century governor-general of Ireland, had one for breakfast every morning. He died at the age of 33.

Brian Howes, Bingham, Notts

Any answers?

I notice Channel 4 is again screening the "Christmassy Ted" episode of Father Ted. Which episode of a TV series (as opposed to one-offs such as The Snowman) has been screened most often on one of the five main TV channels?

Mark Rogers, Worcester Park, Surrey

Should I be more ashamed of knowing very little about (a) popular music since the 70s or (b) football?



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