Lord Moderator Verbin has charged me with introducing the concept of quantum mechanics. I shall. And slowly since time is precious. I personally feel that QM is one of the most important fields of science, because: (1) It is as highly tested as evolution. It is highly supported (possibly the most supported) and is incredibly accurate (over 10 decimal places). (2) It has practical application (all transistors in electronic devices) (3) In the esoteric, it gives us clues to the origins of the universe (it is tied to the uncertainty principle). So here we go. I will introduce concepts slowly, a few a day. The first basic idea is the concept of a mathematical function that tells us the position / velocity of a particle in space. Classically, we can use a wave function. The breakthrough of QM is the statistical interpretation of a complex wave function called the Schrodinger Equation. So instead of solving the equation for an exact position and exact velocity (momentum), we solve for a probability. So we say that x particle has y% chance of being at some position and having some momentum. The most interesting thing to realize, is the wave function doesnt have to be neat or pretty--and it can be zero in certain spots. This brings up the interesting idea of tunneling, where a particle can pass through the areas where it has little or no probability of appearing, without passing through the space. It can just appear on either side of that no-mans zone. Remember this concept, because it is intimately tied to the uncertainty principle, and it is why it is possible for particles to move through space and literally take all possible paths past and present (giving us interference patterns). More tomorrow.
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 02:13:12 +0000