Quantum Mechanics
What exactly is this spooky thing called quantum mechanics? And wait, why do we call quantum mechanics spooky here? We have made a lot of posts previously discussing on the basic ideas of quantum mechanics, particles, waves, theories etc. But one thing we haven't discussed is what exactly is Quantum mechanics for beginners at the first place?
Quantum mechanics tells us about the structure of the atom and how atoms give off Energy in small packets called Quanta. What is quanta? Quanta is nothing but photons which are the particles that make up light read more on photons.
Understanding the quantum world is not that easy. To understand quantum mechanics anyhow, it is necessary to examine how atoms behave. In each atom, tiny negatively charged particles called electrons move in orbits around the positive nucleus which has protons and neutrons in it.
The electrons only move in certain orbits unless they are disturbed. Each orbit has a fixed energy level. Now here comes the interesting part. If the atom is heated or if light shines on it, which simply means we are providing some more energy to the object's atoms! Now how does this happen was explained by me in my previous post. Basically, heat is nothing but the kinetic energy of particles which simply means we are providing kinetic energy to the atoms by heating them up.
If the atom is heated or if light shines on it, an electron can really jump to a higher orbit around the nucleus. As it does this, it absorbs some energy. When the electron falls back to its original orbit, it shoots out the tiny bundle of light energy it had absorbed. This light energy that gets released out and is visible to our eyes as luster or shimmer or shine, is called a "Quantum of light" or "Quanta" or more popularly "Photon". This is the reason why metals have the property of luster. This was just an example of Quantum Mechanics which deals with the natural behavior of atoms and subatomic particles.
Before quantum mechanics, scientists assumed that light was sent out in a continuous wave flow. But quantum mechanics explains that Light is really a stream of tiny Photons which act both as waves and particles. This property or principle in quantum mechanics where a quantum entity or particles have a dual behavior of waves and particles is known as the Wave Particle Duality. This is again a very important principle in quantum physics.
Quantum mechanics also explains how the nucleus of an atom is formed, how nuclei can spilt in two (nuclear fission) and join together (nuclear fusion) or decay to produce radioactivity.
Another important idea that comes from quantum mechanics is the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, developed by a German physicist Werner Heisenberg in February 1927. This principle states that it is impossible to know exactly at the same time both where a subatomic particle is and how fast it is moving. This means that there is always a limit to the amount of information that we can have about the state of any particle. No matter what we do to measure the particle's position and speed, we will always disturb the particle in some way.
Quantum mechanics tells us only what the chances are of getting our measurements right. As you might have guessed by now, quantum mechanics is more probabilistic rather than being 100% sure. As we all know, there are hundreds of theories in quantum mechanics but only a few have been proved that are really helping us today in daily life. There are many famous theories like quantum entanglement and the Schrödinger's cat equation that really are the most important topics in the quantum world. But as you know, it is kind of very difficult to understand quantum theories and quantum mechanics completely. Because here, it is not the surface level, but its is the atomic level. In fact quantum mechanics deals with things that way smaller than subatomic particles. Quantum physics is the study of elementary particles like the Quarks, Photons, Leptons, Bosons, Hadrons, Electrons etc. You see that! The list is endless. This is why The Quantum World is said to be "Spooky" in one sense.
Quantum Theory
Quantum theory was developed early this century as an attempt to explain certain phenomena that could not be explained by the classical principles of physics. In 1900, Max Planck, the very famous German Scientist, suggested the idea of quanta to explain the way light was emitted by hot objects. Albert Einstein built on Planck's theory and established that light consists of tiny particles of energy that behave like waves. In 1913, Niels Bohr, a very famous Danish scientist, showed how Atoms radiate light. Much of this original quantum theory has been replaced by further developments in Quantum Mechanics.
In a nutshell, Quantum theory states that electromagnetic radiation, a big word for light (although light is not the only type of electromagnetic radiation), is emitted in separate packets of energy called quanta or photons. When an atom of a substance absorbs energy, perhaps by being heated, one of its electrons is given a "kick" of energy and moves into a higher orbit. And when the electron returns to its original orbit, it emits the same packet of energy as a photon of radiation.
That's the quantum theory. But, this is just 1 theory. We are trying to make lots of theories on quantum mechanics here. And we have already made some theories. Why don't you check them out.
So, yes, that's it for today. If you enjoyed reading something new, then follow Enlightened Wisdom Smart: SCIENCE for more such smart scientific topics.
Thank you for reading.
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