"Quantum mechanics is very impressive. But an inner voice tells me
that it is not yet the real thing.
The theory produces a good deal but hardly brings us
closer to the secret of the Old One.
I am at all events convinced that He does not play dice"
Albert Einstein
Quantum Universe |
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The truth is that only a handful of Scientists in the whole world are capable of understanding Quantum Physics correctly. The theory of that Science seems to bend over it-self in complicated explanations and the language gets more bizarre as it grows. |
| First question 'what is a QUANTUM?' The word 'QUANTUM' is Latin for "how great" or "how much." So, a QUANTUM is the minimum amount by which certain properties of a system...such as its energy or angular momentum...can change in steps: these steps are equal to or are integral multiples of the relevant quantum. This idea is the basis of QUANTUM THEORY and QUANTUM MECHANICS. The PHOTON...for example...is a QUANTUM of ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION Second question 'what is QUANTUM THEORY?' Prior to the 20th century classical physics regarded all changes in physical properties of a system to be continuous. By departing from this viewpoint and allowing physical quantities such as energy, angular momentum, and action to change only by discrete amounts, QUANTUM THEORY was born. The German physicist Max Planck put forward this theory. Other early applications of QUANTUM THEORY were Einstein's explanation of the Photo-electric Effect and Bohr's theory of the Atom. The more precise mathematical theory that developed in the 1920's from QUANTUM THEORY is called QUANTUM MECHANICS. Relativistic QUANTUM MECHANICS resulted from the extension of QUANTUM MECHANICS to include the special theory of RELATIVITY. See, I told you it was complicated. String Theory
General Relativity has yielded a wealth of insight into the Universe, the orbit of Planets, the evolution of Stars and Galaxies, the Big Bang and recentlyobserved Black Holes and gravitational lenses. if String-theory is correct, then under an extremely powerful 'microscope' we would realize that the electron is not really a point, but a tiny loop of string. A string can do something aside from moving--- it can oscillate in different ways. If it oscillates a certain way, then the person looking at it looking at it from a distance (through a less powerful microscope say) would be unable to tell it is really a string, he or she would see an electron. But if the string oscillates some other way, well, then it would be presumed to be a photon, or a quark, or a ... you get the idea. So, if String-theory is correct, the entire world is made of strings!
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If this picture were drawn to the scale given by
Protons and Neutrons, then the Quarks and Electrons would be less than 0.1mm in size and the entire Atom would be about 10km across.
Tit-bit-of-info
Human fingertips tingle with a trillion quintillion Atoms. If we could somehow suck out all the wasteful space between our body Atoms and pack the entire human race down to it's actual solids, it could all be presented as a single sugar cube weighing 500 million tons.
5 Questions of Quantum Physics
1 What is the nature of the Universe.
2 What is it made of?
3 What are matter, energy, space and time?
4 How did we get here
5 Where are we going?
The questions sounds simple enough but the answers ...or at least the search for the answers ...are far less simple.
