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Anyone who knows, can you simply explain what Quantum Physics is?

Please explain to us common folk what Quantum P. is.

If I had to explain this to a friend who isn't educated how would I explain it?

3 Answers

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  • 10 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    Quantum Physics (or Quantum Mechanics) is the story of the very very tiny. Particles make up all that we know ... both matter and energy. QM describes the particles, how they relate and are organized, and how they give rise to the various forces of nature; electromagnetic (light), gravity, the weak and strong nuclear forces.

  • Anonymous
    10 years ago

    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. The theory was discovered in 1925 by Werner Heisenberg.[1] Heisenberg was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics 1932 for this seminal achievement.[2] Quantum mechanics describes the time evolution of physical systems via a mathematical structure called the wave function. The wave function encapsulates the probability that the system is to be found in a given state at a given time. Quantum mechanics also allows one to calculate the effect on the system of making measurements of properties of the system by defining the effect of those measurements on the wave function. This leads to the well-known uncertainty principle as well as the enduring debate over the role of the experimenter, epitomised in the Schrödinger's Cat thought experiment.

    Quantum mechanics differs significantly from classical mechanics in its predictions when the scale of observations becomes comparable to the atomic and sub-atomic scale, the so-called quantum realm. However, many macroscopic properties of systems can only be fully understood and explained with the use of quantum mechanics. Phenomena such as superconductivity, the properties of materials such as semiconductors and nuclear and chemical reaction mechanisms observed as macroscopic behaviour, cannot be explained using classical mechanics.

    The term was coined by Max Planck, and derives from the observation that some physical quantities can be changed only by discrete amounts, or quanta, as multiples of the Planck constant, rather than being capable of varying continuously or by any arbitrary amount. For example, the angular momentum, or more generally the action,[citation needed] of an electron bound into an atom or molecule is quantized. Although an unbound electron does not exhibit quantized energy levels, one which is bound in an atomic orbital has quantized values of angular momentum. In the context of quantum mechanics, the wave–particle duality of energy and matter and the uncertainty principle provide a unified view of the behavior of photons, electrons and other atomic-scale objects.

    The mathematical formulations of quantum mechanics are abstract. Similarly, the implications are often counter-intuitive in terms of classical physics. The centerpiece of the mathematical formulation is the wavefunction (defined by Schrödinger's wave equation), which describes the probability amplitude of the position and momentum of a particle. Mathematical manipulations of the wavefunction usually involve the bra-ket notation, which requires an understanding of complex numbers and linear functionals. The wavefunction treats the object as a quantum harmonic oscillator and the mathematics is akin to that of acoustic resonance.

    Many of the results of quantum mechanics do not have models that are easily visualized in terms of classical mechanics; for instance, the ground state in the quantum mechanical model is a non-zero energy state that is the lowest permitted energy state of a system, rather than a traditional classical system that is thought of as simply being at rest with zero kinetic energy.

    Fundamentally, it attempts to explain the peculiar behaviour of matter and energy at the subatomic level—an attempt which has produced more accurate results than classical physics in predicting how individual particles behave. But many unexplained anomalies remain.

    Historically, the earliest versions of quantum mechanics were formulated in the first decade of the 20th Century, around the time that atomic theory and the corpuscular theory of light as interpreted by Einstein first came to be widely accepted as scientific fact; these later theories can be viewed as quantum theories of matter and electromagnetic radiation.

    Following Schrödinger's breakthrough in deriving his wave equation in the mid-1920s, quantum theory was significantly reformulated away from the old quantum theory, towards the quantum mechanics of Werner Heisenberg, Max Born, Wolfgang Pauli and their associates, becoming a science of probabilities based upon the Copenhagen interpretation of Niels Bohr. By 1930, the reformulated theory had been further unified and formalized by the work of Paul Dirac and John von Neumann, with a greater emphasis placed on measurement, the statistical nature of our knowledge of reality, and philosophical speculations about the role of the observer.

    The Copenhagen interpretation quickly became (and remains) the orthodox interpretation. However, due to the absence of conclusive experimental evidence there are also many competing interpretations.

    Quantum mechanics has since branched out into almost every aspect of physics, and into other disciplines such as quantum chemistry, quantum electronics, quantum optics and quantum information science. Much 19th century physics has

  • Anonymous
    4 years ago

    i've got somewhat study that booklet. He mentions interior the that he wrote it with the point of explaining quantum physics to his spouse. And its very, very attainable. in spite of the undeniable fact that I don t endure in suggestions the call and that i'll be waiting to t to locate it the two.

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