GRE Reading Comprehension

Home > GRE Test > GRE Reading Comprehension Questions

Next steps

Source: CHP

Quantum mechanics is a highly successful theory: it supplies methods for accurately calculating the results of diverse experiments, especially with minute particles. The predictions of quantum mechanics, however, give only the probability of an event, not a deterministic statement of whether or not the event will occur. Because of this probabilism, Einstein remained strongly dissatisfied with the theory throughout his life, though he did not maintain that quantum mechanics is wrong. Rather, he held that it is incomplete: in quantum mechanics the motion of a particle must be described in terms of probabilities, he argued, only because some parameters that determine the motion have not been specified. Einstein's ideas have been tested by experiments performed since his death, and as most of these experiments support traditional quantum mechanics, Einstein's approach is almost certainly erroneous.

Question List: 1

It can be inferred from the passage that the author's conclusion that Einstein's approach is "erroneous" might have to be modified because

  • A it is theoretically possible to generate plausible theories with hidden parameters within them
  • B some experimental tests of Einstein's theory do not disconfirm the hidden-parameter theory of quantum mechanics
  • C it is possible for a theory to have hidden parameters and yet be probabilistic
  • D traditional quantum mechanics has not yet been used to analyze all of the phenomena to which it could be applied
  • E there are too many possible hidden parameters to develop meaningful tests of hidden- parameter theories

Show Answer

Previous       Next