I'm a 14 year-old girl, and I recently watched a program called "BBC Horizon-What is Reality?" and it dealt with quantum mechanics. I understand it to a certain point..but I don't fully understand it. Because I live in a small town..our library is not the best. They did not carry any books on quantum mechanics. So I'm ask you, Yahoo! Answer users to please explain this to me? Thanks in advance! (:
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At one time, scientists thought everything was either a particle (like an apple) or an energy wave (like a sound wave).
Around 1800 a British scientist, Thomas Young, proved that light was an energy wave.
In 1900 a German scientist, Max Planck, accidentally discovered that light waves have particle properties. That was quite shocking! Even Planck questioned his own finding: light was both a wave and a particle - two different things - at once.
Then in 1924 a French scientist, Louis de Broglie said this: if a wave (like light) can behave like a particle, maybe a particle (like an apple) can behave like a wave.
It turns out de Broglie was right. Every particle: an atom, an apple, a person, also behaves like some sort of wave.
A German scientist, Max Born, took it further. Born said that particle's wave tells you where a particle probably is located.
Now, a large object's (like a person's) wave does not spead out much. So there is very, very little chance that you will disappear and reappear somewhere else.
But the smaller an object is, the more its wave spreads out.
An electron is very small, so its wave is very spread out. That means it's very possible that an electron will disappear from on location and instantly reappear somewhere else far away!
It sounds crazy, but it has been observed in the lab many times! The study of all this particle-as-wave stuff is called "quantum mechanics."
By the way, it's such an odd idea that Albert Einstein refused to believe it. Experiments have since shown that Einstein was wrong.
EDIT: The study of all this particle-as-wave stuff is called "quantum MECHANICS." Sorry.
Around 1800 a British scientist, Thomas Young, proved that light was an energy wave.
In 1900 a German scientist, Max Planck, accidentally discovered that light waves have particle properties. That was quite shocking! Even Planck questioned his own finding: light was both a wave and a particle - two different things - at once.
Then in 1924 a French scientist, Louis de Broglie said this: if a wave (like light) can behave like a particle, maybe a particle (like an apple) can behave like a wave.
It turns out de Broglie was right. Every particle: an atom, an apple, a person, also behaves like some sort of wave.
A German scientist, Max Born, took it further. Born said that particle's wave tells you where a particle probably is located.
Now, a large object's (like a person's) wave does not spead out much. So there is very, very little chance that you will disappear and reappear somewhere else.
But the smaller an object is, the more its wave spreads out.
An electron is very small, so its wave is very spread out. That means it's very possible that an electron will disappear from on location and instantly reappear somewhere else far away!
It sounds crazy, but it has been observed in the lab many times! The study of all this particle-as-wave stuff is called "quantum mechanics."
By the way, it's such an odd idea that Albert Einstein refused to believe it. Experiments have since shown that Einstein was wrong.
EDIT: The study of all this particle-as-wave stuff is called "quantum MECHANICS." Sorry.
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Quantum Physics in general is a study of the EXTREMELY large or the EXTREMELY small.
Quantum mechanics, also known as quantum physics or quantum theory, is a branch of physics providing a mathematical description of the dual particle-like and wave-like behavior and interaction of matter and energy.
From the definition above, you can see that we are talking about the extremely SMALL.
Quantum mechanics, also known as quantum physics or quantum theory, is a branch of physics providing a mathematical description of the dual particle-like and wave-like behavior and interaction of matter and energy.
From the definition above, you can see that we are talking about the extremely SMALL.
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To explain it to a person like you (no offense) quantum mechanics is the study of subatomic particles, subatomic particles are what make up atoms and atoms make up molecules and molecules make up you:D It is very hard to study these type of things because A.They are very extremely small B.It will lead to even bigger questions as to what makes up those subatomic partices. And C. Funding for projects like these are very little since todays societys money goes into the government and everybody knows the government is poop.
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'I think it is safe to say that no one understands quantum mechanics'. Richard Feynman If anyone understood QM it would be Richard Feynman, Nobel Prize winner Physics 1965, argubly the best quantum theorist of the last half
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