Quantum mechanics

The beam of electrons must hit the screen in one specific spot, as if you were throwing baseballs through a hole against a wall. (Hence quantum physics challenged our classical thinking about objects and was deemed controversial in its early years.) In fact, when a slit is closed, the interference pattern disappears — the photons or electrons form a single band that spreads out from the brightest…

Introduction: Quantum physics, also known as quantum mechanics, is the branch of physics that uses quantum theory to predict and describe the properties of a physical system. While chemistry is the science of composition, properties, structures, and reactions of matter; it is also known as the ‘central science’. While reading the book Alice in Quantumland by Robert Gilmore, one is able to link the two together, causing a curiosity to learn more. It is amazing to see how the two correlate and…

randomness and chance play a very significant role in the essence of all sciences, and especially in the empirical sciences. Randomness is a critical component of biological modeling at many levels in a wide range of systems. The fundamental axioms of the quantum paradigm in physics are, by definition, essentially stochastic. Economics uses the randomness in human thought to create econometric models that business models can use to optimize their decisions. Traffic flow applications use Poisson…

A large portion of the book Alice in Quantumland tries to help Alice make sense of wave interference. The Classical Mechanic leads Alice to a place referred to as the gedanken room, meaning the thinking room. In said room, anything that one thinks appears as substance, making it possible to perform quantum experiments. The Classical Mechanical then proceeds to explain interference by a simple definition to Alice. “Interference is something that happens with waves. You can have all kinds of waves…

learn how to speak Russian and French. He also learned German and English. Nineteen years old, and one year after the founding of the USSR, George went to the University of Leningrad to study physics. He and his friends would often discuss quantum mechanics which was cutting edge science at that time and was leading to the secrets of how the atom works. George earned his PhD through his own investigations into the strange behavior of the atomic nucleus. For three years he worked at the…

Science is intuitive. The tallest hill can be the shortest mountain. It is through our intuition that we come to know that the big ones are mountains and the little ones are hills. In some ways, the same is true for science. Science encompasses everything ranging from chemistry to archaeology, microbiology to astronomy. There are so many different aspects to science that it is hard to boil down to one concrete and concise definition. Science is involved with the study of the natural world. This…

The purpose for this experiment is to observe the emission of spectra from several atoms including hydrogen and helium. Measuring the wavelengths of these emitted spectra will allow us to calculate energies of emitted photons. It is important to note that we will be using the Bohr model of the atom to denote the orbit numbers from which electrons in the sample are relaxing from in hydrogen. This will be important for the conclusions that we will make based upon the calculations using the data…

we refer to the laws of classical mechanics: for example, Newtonian Laws (1-3), the Law of Conservation of Energy, the Law of Conservation of Momentum, etc. (Robert Coolman, “What is Classical Mechanics”) In contrast, we turn to the laws of quantum mechanics when working to analyze micro-objects and relations. Examples of these include quantized properties, waves of light, etc. (Robert Coolman, “What is Quantum Mechanics) What’s more, laws of classical mechanics—study of macro objects—are useful…

be broken down. What are photons? How does gravity affect light? What is a black hole? A photon is typically seen as a particle or wave representing a quantum of light or other electromagnetic radiation. A photon carries energy proportional to the radiation frequency but has zero rest mass. Photons are currently best explained by quantum mechanics. However, it is important to know that photons have both the qualities of waves and particles which is known as wave-particle duality. As Einstein…

The term photoluminescence by definition can be refered to as a molecule or atom which absorbs electromagnetic energy and in turn, emits light.In quantum mechanics, it is where excitation to a higher energy state occurs, which then returns to a lower energy state, together with the emission of a photon. According to Seitz (2006) found in the Credo referencing database, “Photoluminescence excitation spectra are determined by measuring emission intensity at a fixed wavelength while varying the…