Do You Exist? | Science Specials Week S01 E03

Do You Even Exist? | Science Specials Week

Hey everybody, welcome to this blog. As today is the first day of the science specials week, it would be a great pleasure to dive deeper into amazing thoughts of science.

 

So, as we begin, I want to start by asking you a question. Everybody knows that while you are reading this blog post, you are just there. To make sense to this line, you know you exist. But, what is existence, anyway? To most of you of course, existence typically is the presence of anyone on this Earth. But is that it at all?

Do You Think You Even Exist?

Now, that might seem a pretty dumb question to point upon, but hey, we are humans and we have the rights to know everything going on in this planet where there's so much hustle and bustle everywhere! So, by the play of nature or what's called quantum mechanics, you might be a little curious to ask, hey, we do exist, who says I don't exist. I agree with you. But think deeply about it. Now one dumb sense of understanding existence can be like, things that we don't see usually must not exist. Now, I know this is very boring at the surface level. 

But what fascinates the most, and takes the cake, is going at the microscopic level! So, again, what do you think, does microscopic world has any connection to our existence, anyway?

What is inside the microscopic stuff?

Now, if you think about it, we all know what atoms are. They are simply the smallest particles of any object. But is it true really? So let's take a super microscope and do this experiment. We zoom in, we find that there are a lot of details inside the object. 

We zoom in further, and find that there are lot of small balls in it. And those are called atoms. To get a complete grasp about atoms, visit My Post - The Atoms: Electrons, Protons And Neutrons | Science Specials Week S01 E16 | Season Finale.

Well, to simplify a group of atoms is just called a molecule. And we all know that an atom consists of electrons, protons and neutrons. But what if we zoom in further? Will we see a magical thing? Well, to break the suspense, if we zoom in much further we will find something what's called quarks. Scientists say that it is the smallest substance ever discovered. So, we now know that atoms are not only the smallest substances but quarks which are even smaller than them are the smallest substances.

So this is ok but what if we zoom in even further. If scientists say that quarks are the smallest particles ever discovered then is there any other thing present inside the quark or is there any substance that composes the quark. Well there is and it is very obvious that the name of that thing is "ENERGY". 

So this means that at the basic level and at the most deepest level of any substance things are just composed of energy! Whoa! That took a long time to figure out! So if we exist in a form of energy at the most basic level, then are we particles and waves? 

And if that is possible then that arises the question that do we even exist? But you will say that I see a book in front of me though it is made up of energy at the most basic level I can see it, it do exists, but what if I tell you, if you don't see the book then is the book still existing? You may just hold up the book without even seeing it and tell, yes it does exists! But what about far away places like your school or any other known building? You don't see it so is it proportional to its existence?

Well, well in my opinion, in simple words, things that we don't see for a long long time are considered to be extinct. Like the dodo birds. But here we are in the topic of existence. To deal with the most basic level of science that is microscopic science, we can conclude that objects that we don't see are present in the form of energy but as soon as we see them they become a form of matter. 

This might seem pretty complicated as to how is the microscopic level connected with our daily lives but as we all know quantum mechanics has another level of science in it.

So to refresh your minds and fill with knowledge, at the end of the day, we understand that according to quantum mechanics every substance's most basic thing is made up of energy. 

An amazing fact with the conclusion is that, you must have heard about an amazing equation created by Mr Einstein. That is e=mc^2.

To just simplify it for you this equation just states that mass is directly proportional to energy. 

How is that? We just learnt that the smallest and the most basic thing of any substance is energy then how can energy be compared with mass? If you understand it more deeply we can just give it a thought of us really really really small mass which is just the amount of energy that we think. Compressed mass can be proportional to energy. Because if we take a mass and compress it to its smallest then what we get is known as energy. 

A brilliant example can be taken from a cartoon series of Pokemon. You must have seen a pokeball in the cartoon. The characters just capture there pokemons into the pokeballs. What does that mean? When the mass of the pokemons is captured inside the pokeball it just converts into energy and when they are released back they are turned back to Mass. When they are captured they become so small that they eventually get converted into energy and after their release they again become normal Pokemon mass.

And yes not to forget, we asked the question that do we really exist. Well the answer depends on you. On your thinking as well. Your perspective of view of quantum mechanics in your opinion. 

Well, for deep Quantum thinkers this world doesn't exist for them but for normal people like you and me this world and us surely do exist. So that was the information regarding some basic Quantum mechanics and energy. I hope you gained a lot of information from this blog and understood how deep is the world of Quantum science.

So thanks for reading and exploring this blog and do read other science specials week blogs which are available on Enlightened Wisdom: Smart SCIENCE.

To Gain more knowledge and curiosity on quantum mechanics stay tuned up till the next Quantum blog is posted and gain more knowledge from other scientific blogs!

Created By : Naman Dwivedi

Thank you for reading.

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