# B Physical significance of wave function

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1. Jul 8, 2017

### Wrichik Basu

I am a beginner in quantum mechanics. I started out with D. J. Griffiths' book in quantum mechanics.

I'm having a problem in understanding the wave function. What is the physical meaning of the wave function? I searched on the net but didn't get any good explanation. I understand that the square of the wave function represents probability density. I also understood the normalisation of wave function, but what is the wave function by itself? How can I experimentally find a wave function?

Last edited: Jul 8, 2017
2. Jul 8, 2017

### BvU

there is none. No physical meaning. Nevertheless very useful (as in the Schroedinger equation)
In fact it is a probability density.

3. Jul 8, 2017

### formodular

From the normalization condition $\int \mathrm{d}^3 x \psi^*(x) \psi(x) = 1$ you can see the wave function is in some sense the square root or factorization of a probability distribution, it is a means for representing probabilities for measuring quantities related to physical systems.

4. Jul 8, 2017

### Wrichik Basu

Yes, that I've seen. I was looking forward to whether it was a physical quantity which can be measured.

5. Jul 8, 2017

### Wrichik Basu

Thanks for that, I had missed it!