- #1
skiboo
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Often in quantum mechanics, there appears statements of the type :
Expected value of operator = a value
I am told that operators are instructions and I do not understand how an instruction can have a value, expected or otherwise. Even in the case where the operator is of the form "muliply the argument by the value of variable x", this is not the same as the value of x per se. In other cases the incompatability is starker. Can someone please resolve this problem, preferably in words, because the explanations I have seen to date seem to make the problem disappear by making a symbol have diffeent meanings in different locations.
Expected value of operator = a value
I am told that operators are instructions and I do not understand how an instruction can have a value, expected or otherwise. Even in the case where the operator is of the form "muliply the argument by the value of variable x", this is not the same as the value of x per se. In other cases the incompatability is starker. Can someone please resolve this problem, preferably in words, because the explanations I have seen to date seem to make the problem disappear by making a symbol have diffeent meanings in different locations.