Subject: Re: CCL:who solved all of chemistry?

From: Craig Taverner <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 16 Jan 1996 08:17:30 +0200 (GMT+0200)

On Mon, 15 Jan 1996 [email-masked] wrote:

> I have a dim recollection of one of the founders of quantum theory claiming
> that they had solved all of chemistry and half of physics.  My recollection
> was that it came from Schrodinger but a colleague suggested it was Dirac.
> Can anyone enlighten me as to who said it and where the quote can be found?
> Many thanks --
> Jack

In the book "Theoretical Models of Chemical Bonding", the editor, Z. B. 
Maksic' quotes from Dirac in the Prologue:

"It is pertinent to start here with a widely quoted (and sometimes 
misquoted) classical statement of Dirac in 1929 on quantum mechanics [18]:
  ..."in the consideration of atomic and molecular structure and 
 ordinary chemical reactions it is, indeed, sufficiently accurate if one 
 neglects the relative variation of mass with velocity and assumes only 
 Coulomb forces between various electrons and atomic nuclei.  The 
 underlying physical laws necessary for the mathematical theory of a 
 large part of physics and the whole of chemistry are thus completely 
 known, and the difficulty is only that the exact application of these laws 
 leads to equations much to complicated to be soluble.  It therefore  
 becomes desirable that approximate practical methods of applying quantum 
 mechanics should be developed, which can lead to an explanation of the 
 main features of complex atomic systems without too much computation."

The Dirac quote is referenced:
18. Dirac PAM (1929) Proc. Roy. Soc. A 123: 714

This quote certainly sounds like the one you're looking for.  I hope the 
reference helps, I haven't looked it up myself.

Cheers, Craig

"Never make anything simple and efficient when a way can be found to
 make it complex and wonderful."

Craig Taverner
Structural Chemistry, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
tel:   +27-11-716-2290                fax: +27-11-716-3826
email: [email-masked]
www:   http://www.gh.wits.ac.za/craig

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 16 Jan 1996 07:55:28 -0400 (EDT)

On Mon, 15 Jan 1996 [email-masked] wrote:

> John W. (Jack) Crump                    e-mail:  [email-masked]
> Department of Chemistry                 phone:  517-629-0253
> Albion College
> Albion, MI  49224
> 
On page 63 in Steinfeld's "Molecules and Radiation, an Introduction to 
Modern Molecular Spectroscopy", after stating the Hamiltonian for a 
molecule (neglecting SO coupling and keeping only 1 and 2 electron terms) 
the following footnote appears:
"It may be worth recalling Dirac's comment at this point, to the effect 
all of chemistry was implicit in the diagonalization of this Hamiltonian, 
if we could but do the arithmetic."

Steve Williams
Chemistry
ASU
Boone NC