Quantum Mechanics and its Principals

853 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: About quantum mechanics

What is quantum mechanics? Quantum mechanics is the science of things so small that quantum reality has an effect. Quantum means ‘discrete amount or portion’. Max Planck discovered in 1900 that you couldn’t get any smaller than a certain amount of anything. This minimum amount is now called a Planck unit. Niels Bohr, the father of the orthodox ‘Copenhagen Interpretation’ of quantum physics once said, “Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it. Quantum Mechanics is a complex and hard-to-grasp area of science; many theories surround this vague study. There are four main interpretations, each of them with their own basic meaning. These four basic interpretations state: a) Your consciousness affects the behavior of subatomic particles. b) Particles move forwards and backwards in time and appear in all possible places at once. c) The universe is splitting every Planck-time (10 E-43 seconds) into billions of parallel universes. d) The universe is interconnected with faster-than-light transfers of information. To begin, the Copenhagen Interpretation, following point a, was formulated by Niels Bohr of Copenhagen University. This Interpretation is the father of all other interpretations, providing the roots onto which the others grasp. This theory of quantum mechanics basically says that your consciousness of an atom has an affect on how you view it. At a conference in Brussels in 1927, Bohr browbeat almost all dissenters of his theory into submission, the only remarkable exception being Einstein himself. When looking at the Copenhagen Interpretation seriously, you begin to think that consciousness and particle physics are intertwined, leading to a sort of self- paradox. Related to this theory, Henry S... ... middle of paper ... ...stein’s theory of relativity. Today, quantum theory is applied to many aspects of daily life, including, quantum optics, chemistry, computing, and cryptography. While, every day, we are getting closer and closer to the final answer, physicists still have a long way to go before reaching their revered goal. Works Cited • Higgo, James. A Lazy Layman's Guide to Quantum Physics. N.p.: n.p., 1999. Web. 17 Feb. 2012. . 4 Main Theories of Quantum Mechanics/ Theorists • Yudkowsky, Eliezer. Quantum Physics. N.p.: n.p., 2008. Web. 17 Feb. 2012. . Explanations of Theories • Herbert, Nick. Quantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics. New York: Doubleday, 1985. Print. Theorists/Physicists/Quotes • Niels Bohr. “Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it.” Quote.

Show More
Related

  • An Adventure of the Quantum Universe in Alice in Quantumland by Robert Gilmore

    1549 Words  | 4 Pages

    The novel, Alice and Quantum Land, by Robert Gilmore is an adventure in the Quantum universe. Alice, a normal teenage girl, goes through quantum land and understands what quantum is and how it works. The quantum world is a difficult one to understand, as its nature is one of complex states of being, natures, principles, notions, and the like. When these principles or concepts are compared with the macro world, one can find great similarities and even greater dissimilarities between the world wherein electrons rule, and the world wherein human beings live. In Alice in Quantumland, author Robert Gilmore converts the original tale of Alice in Wonderland from a world of anthropomorphic creatures into the minute world of quantum mechanics, and attempts to ease the reader into this confusing world through a series of analogies (which comprise an allegory) about the principles of quantum mechanics. Through Alice’s adventure she comes across some ideas or features that contradict real world ideas. These ideas are the following: Electrons have no distinguishing spin, the Pauli Exclusion Principle, Superposition, Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, and Interference and Wave Particle Duality.

    Read More

  • Einstein’s Relativity and its influences

    1103 Words  | 3 Pages

    Those technologies talked above may still too far from our daily lives, but actually the application of Einstein’s relativity is inundated with so many things around us, such as the smoke detector, screen, etc.

    Read More

  • Oppenheimer's Legacy

    951 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the 1920s the new quantum and relativity theories were engaging the attentions of science. That mass was equivalent to energy and that matter could be both wavelike and corpuscular carried implications seen only dimly at that time. Oppenheimer's early research was devoted in particular to energy processes of subatomic particles, including electrons, positrons, and cosmic rays. Since quantum theory had been proposed only a few years before, the university post provided him an excellent opportunity to devote his entire career to the exploration and development of its full significance. In addition, he trained a whole generation of U.S. physicists, who were greatly affected by his qualities of leadership and intellectual independence.

    Read More

  • Schrödinger's Cat: an Episode of Paralleled Realities

    1480 Words  | 3 Pages

    The idea of parallel realities has existed within the literary circle of science fiction for many years. One of the key concepts behind alternate dimensions is that with every action and decision - whether it is consciously made or not - another alternate dimension has the opposite action or decision made, and that there are subsequent realities created in which every other option exists uniquely. Ursula LeGuin's short story "Schrödinger's Cat" is a direct manifestation of the idea of paralleled realities in that the story deals with an experiment that spawns countless paralleled realities. Merely one of the skewed realities is overseen during the course of the narration. The Schrödinger "Gedankenexperiment" ("thinking experiment" in German) is a hypothetical situation in which a cat is placed in a sealed box with a gun and a photon emitter that has a fifty percent chance of firing the gun and killing the cat, and a fifty percent chance of not firing the gun and not killing the cat(2230). The possibility for other outcomes remains ever present, although infinitesimally slim with the percentage of anything else occurring. "We cannot predict the behavior of the photon, and thus, once it has behaved, we cannot predict the state of the system it has determined. We cannot predict it! God plays dice with the world!" (2230) The three characters who appear within "Schrödinger's Cat" act as the different variables within an experiment: the control; the dependent variable; and the independent variable. Each of these characters exists and does not exist within any reality and their existence (or lack of) is dependent upon time and which timeline they are involved i...

    Read More

  • Six Easy Pieces By Richard Feynman

    1653 Words  | 4 Pages

    Additionally, this book tackles an extremely difficult topic that is considered to be one of the most complex subjects in higher learning. Feynman is undaunted by this, he takes the known principles of physics and presents them in a new light, and should be praised for his ability to demonstrate such a complicated subject to so many people in such a way that even the common man can grasp these basic principles of physics. Thus, Richard Feynman’s book Six Easy Pieces is more than worthy of achieving high literary merit.

    Read More

  • The Ultimate Nature of Matter

    2017 Words  | 5 Pages

    It can only explain how nature works by observing the effects on material objects. In his book In Search of Schrödinger's Catch. 8, Gribbin suggests the possibility that no particle is real until it is observed. The act of observation collapses the wave function so that one of a number of ghost particles becomes a real particle. This idea has similarities with idealism and its appearance and reality arguments. Gribbin does not take the argument forward, so let us consider the philosophical arguments instead of the physics.

    Read More

  • The Physics of Flight

    1566 Words  | 4 Pages

    Kirkpatrick, Larry, and Gerald F. Wheeler. Physics: A World View. 4th ed. Orlando: Harcourt College Publishers, 2001.

    Read More

  • Informative Speech Scientists Einstein and Heisenberg

    1726 Words  | 4 Pages

    Many have tried to explain what these Theories mean and there has been a lot of Hype about it. Most do not understand what this is all about. So lets make a survey! The very interesting thing is that there are a lot of elements in these Theories which are important for our beliefs and thereby also our Faith!

    Read More

  • The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle

    758 Words  | 2 Pages

    At the atomic scale of quantum mechanics, however, measurement becomes a very delicate process. Let's say you want to find out where an electron is and where it is going (that trooper has a feeling that any electron he catches will be going faster than the local speed limit). How would you do it? Get a super high powered magnifier and look for it? The very act of looking depends upon light, which is made of photons, and these photons could have enough momentum that once they hit the electron they would change its course! It's like rolling the cue ball across a billiard table and trying to discover where it is going by bouncing the 8-ball off of it; by making the measurement with the 8-ball you have certainly altered the course of the cue ball. You may have discovered where the cue ball was, but now have no idea of where it is going (because you were measuring with the 8-ball instead of actually looking at the table).

    Read More

  • Energy as Matter

    989 Words  | 2 Pages

    Fowler, Michael. “Modern Physics.” Lecture. Mass and Energy. 1 Mar. 2008. Web. 13 Oct. 2013.

    Read More

  • Physics of Submarines

    2080 Words  | 5 Pages

    Serway, Raymond A, and Robert J Beichner. Physics: For Scientists and Engineers. United States of

    Read More

  • Examining the Newtonian Worldview

    1561 Words  | 4 Pages

    In The Quantum Enigma, Rosenblum and Kuttner address the impact of the “Newtonian worldview” on our ability to understand and explain the phenomena of the physical world. Science has been able to greatly advance our knowledge of the natural world over the last several centuries largely due to this worldview. In this paper, five tenets of the Newtonian worldview will be summarized; two of these points—those found to be the most and least defensible—will be discussed in greater detail. As a final point, a discussion will be laid out regarding which of the five precepts, if rejected by modern physics, would be the most disturbing to give up.

    Read More

  • Quantum Cryptography Essay

    1096 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are still limitations in classical cryptography, it is purely mathematical and information cannot be separated from its physical representation. In Classical physics, we use binary form to store and process the data. In the 1980s, C.Bennet, P.Benioff, R.Feynman and others observed that new and very powerful ways of information processing are possible with quantum mechanical systems. This gave birth to the concept of quantum computing.

    Read More

  • Infectious Disease Epidemics

    1553 Words  | 4 Pages

    American Institute of Physics. Vol. 1051 Issue 1 (2008). Academic Search Premier.> 224. http://login.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=34874307&site=ehost-live.

    Read More

  • Nuclear Fusion

    826 Words  | 2 Pages

    2) Fundamentals of Physics Extended: Fifth Edition. David Hanley, Robert Resnick, Jearl Walker. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc, New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto, Singapore. 1997.

    Read More

More about Quantum Mechanics and its Principals

Open Document