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make up atoms work. QM also tells us how electromagnetic waves like light work.
Waves and photons
Photons are particles, much smaller than atoms. The more photons a lamp
shoots off, the brighter the light. Light is a form of energy that behaves like the
waves in water or radio waves. The distance between the top of one wave and the
top of the next wave is called a 'wavelength.' Each photon carries a certain
amount, or 'quantum', of energy depending on its wavelength.
nm are called ultraviolet (or UV) light. Such light cannot be seen by the human
eye. On the other end of the spectrum, red light is about 700 nm. Infrared light is
about 700 nm to 300,000 nm. Human eyes are not sensitive to infrared light either.
Wavelengths are not always so small. Radio waves have longer wavelengths. The
wavelengths for your FM radio can be several meters in length (for example,
stations transmitting on 99.5 FM are emitting radio energy with a wavelength of
about 3 meters, which is about 10 feet). Each photon has a definite amount of
energy related to its wavelength. The shorter the wavelength of a photon, the
greater its energy. For example, an ultraviolet photon has more energy than an
infrared photon.
example, a person walking by a brick building that has been heated by the sun
will feel heat from the building without having to touch it.
The mathematical formulations of quantum mechanics are abstract. A
mathematical function, the wavefunction, provides information about
the
probability amplitude of
position, momentum, and other
physical properties of
a particle. Many of the
results of
quantum
mechanics
are not
easily
visualized
in terms of
classical
mechanics.
Quantization
Planck discovered the relationship between frequency and energy. Nobody before
had ever guessed that frequency would be directly proportional to energy (this
means that as one doubles, the other does, too). If we choose to use what are
called natural units, then the number representing the frequency of a photon
would also represent its energy. The equation would then be:
E = f
But the way physics grew, there was no natural connection between the units
then used to measure energy and the units commonly used to measure time (and
therefore frequency). So the formula that Planck worked out to make the numbers
all come out right was:
E = h f
or, energy equals h times frequency. This h is a number called Planck's constant
after its discoverer.
Double-slit experiment: light goes from the light source at left to fringes (marked
in the black edge) at the right.
Photoelectric effect: photons hit metal and electrons are pushed away.
HistoryEdit
Left to right: Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Louis de Broglie, Max Born,
Paul Dirac, Werner Heisenberg, Wolfgang Pauli, Erwin Schrdinger, Richard
Feynman.
Isaac Newton thought that light was made of very small things that we would now
call particles (he referred to them as "Corpuscles"). Christiaan Huygens thought
that light was made of waves. Scientists thought that a thing cannot be a particle
and a wave at the same time.
Scientists did experiments to find out whether light was made of particles or
waves. They found out that both ideas were right light was somehow both
waves and particles. The Double-slit experiment performed by Thomas Young
showed that light must act like a wave. The Photoelectric effect discovered by
Albert Einstein proved that light had to act like particles that carried specific
amounts of energy, and that the energies were linked to their frequencies. This
experimental result is called the "wave-particle duality" in quantum mechanics.
Later, physicists found out that everything behaves both like a wave and like a
particle, not just light. However, this effect is much smaller in large objects.
Here are some of the people who discovered the basic parts of quantum
mechanics: Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Satyendra Nath Bose, Niels Bohr, Louis
de Broglie, Max Born, Paul Dirac, Werner Heisenberg, Wolfgang Pauli, Erwin
Schrdinger, John von Neumann, and Richard Feynman. They did their work in
the first half of the 20th century.
Beyond Planck
Hydrogen lamps work like neon lights, but neon lights have their own unique
group of colors (and frequencies) of light. Scientists learned that they could
identify all elements by the light colors they produce. They just could not figure
out how the frequencies were determined.
Then, a Swiss mathematician named Johann Balmer figured out an equation that
told what (lambda, for wave length) would be:
where B is a number that Balmer determined to be equal to 364.56 nm.
This equation only worked for the visible light from a hydrogen lamp. But later,
the equation was made more general:
where R is the Rydberg constant, equal to 0.0110 nm1, and n must be greater
than m.
In 1908, Walter Ritz made the Ritz combination principle that shows how certain
gaps between frequencies keep repeating themselves. This turned out to be
important to Werner Heisenberg several years later.
In 1905, Albert Einstein used Planck's idea to show that a beam of light is made
up of a stream of particles called photons. The energy of each photon depends
on its frequency. Einstein's idea is the beginning of the idea in quantum
mechanics that all subatomic particles like electrons, protons, neutrons, and
others are both waves and particles at the same time. (See picture of atom with
the electron as waves at atom.) This led to a theory about subatomic particles and
electromagnetic waves called wave-particle duality. This is where particles and
waves were neither one nor the other, but had certain properties of both.
At this point, most things about the light produced by a hydrogen lamp were
known. One big problem remained: How can we explain the brightness of each of
the lines produced by glowing hydrogen?
There is some law that says what frequencies of light glowing hydrogen will
produce. It has to predict spaced-out frequencies when the electrons involved are
moving between orbits close to the nucleus (center) of the atom, but it also has to
predict that the frequencies will get closer and closer together as we look at what
the electron does in moving between orbits farther and farther out. It will also
predict that the intensity differences between frequencies get closer and closer
together as we go out. Where classical physics already gives the right answers
by one set of equations the new physics has to give the same answers but by
different equations.
Classical physics uses the methods of the French mathematician Fourier to make
a maths picture of the physical world, and it uses collections of smooth curves
that go together to make one smooth curve that gives, in this case, intensities for
light of all frequencies from some light. But it is not right because that smooth
curve only appears at higher frequencies. At lower frequencies, there are always
isolated points and nothing connects the dots. So, to make a map of the real
world, Heisenberg had to make a big change. He had to do something to pick out
only the numbers that would match what was seen in nature. Sometimes, people
say he "guessed" these equations, but he was not making blind guesses. He
found what he needed. The numbers that he calculated would put dots on a
graph, but there would be no line drawn between the dots. And making one
"graph" just of dots for every set of calculations would have wasted lots of paper
and not have gotten anything done. Heisenberg found a way to efficiently predict
the intensities for different frequencies and to organize that information in a
helpful way.
Just using the empirical rule given above, the one that Balmer got started and
Rydberg improved, we can see how to get one set of numbers that would help
Heisenberg get the kind of picture that he wanted:
The rule says that when the electron moves from one orbit to another it either
gains or loses energy, depending on whether it is getting farther from the center
or nearer to it. So we can put these orbits or energy levels in as headings along
the top and the side of a grid. For historical reasons the lowest orbit is called n,
and the next orbit out is called n - a, then comes n - b, and so forth. It is confusing
that they used negative numbers when the electrons were actually gaining
energy, but that is just the way it is.
Since the Rydberg rule gives us frequencies, we can use that rule to put in
numbers depending on where the electron goes. If the electron starts at n and
ends up at n, then it has not really gone anywhere, so it did not gain energy and it
did not lose energy. So the frequency is 0. If the electron starts at n-a and ends up
at n, then it has fallen from a higher orbit to a lower orbit. If it does so then it
loses energy, and the energy it loses shows up as a photon. The photon has a
certain amount of energy, e, and that is related to a certain frequency f by the
equation e = h f. So we know that a certain change of orbit is going to produce a
certain frequency of light, f. If the electron starts at n and ends up at n - a, that
means it has gone from a lower orbit to a higher orbit. That only happens when a
photon of a certain frequency and energy comes in from the outside, is absorbed
by the electron and gives it its energy, and that is what makes the electron go out
to a higher orbit. So, to keep everything making sense, we write that frequency as
a negative number. There was a photon with a certain frequency and now it has
been taken away.
So we can make a grid like this, where f(ab) means the frequency involved
when an electron goes from energy state (orbit) b to energy state a (Again,
sequences look backwards, but that is the way they were originally written.):
Grid of f
Electron States
n
f(nn)
n
n-a
f(nn-a)
n-b
n-c
f(nn-b)
....
f(nn-c)
.....
n-a
f(n-an)
n-b
f(n-bn)
Heisenberg's idea is very hard to grasp, but we can make it clearer with an
example. First, we will start calling these grids "matrices," because we will soon
need to talk about matrix multiplication.
Suppose that we start with two kinds of measurements, position (q) and
momentum (p). In 1925, Heisenberg wrote an equation like this one:
Matrix of p
Electron States
n
p(nn-a)
.....
n-a
n-b
transition....
.....
Matrix of q
n-a
n-b
p(nn-b)
.....
.....
n-c
....
p(nn-c)
.....
n-b
n-c
Electron States
n
A
.....
n-a
.....
B
n-b
.....
.....
Where:
n-b
.....
.....
C
n-c
.....
.....
.....
n-d
.....
A=p(nn-a)*q(n-an-b)+p(nn-b)*q(n-bn-b)+p(nn-c)*q(n-cn-b)+.....
B=p(n-an-a)*q(n-an-c)+p(n-an-b)*q(n-bn-c)+p(n-an-c)*q(n-cn-c)+.....
C=p(n-bn-a)*q(n-an-d)+p(n-bn-b)*q(n-bn-d)+p(n-bn-c)*q(n-dn-d)+.....
and so forth.
If the matrices were reversed, the following values would result:
A=q(nn-a)*p(n-an-b)+q(nn-b)*p(n-bn-b)+q(nn-c)*p(n-cn-b)+.....
B=q(n-an-a)*p(n-an-c)+q(n-an-b)*p(n-bn-c)+q(n-an-c)*p(n-cn-c)+.....
C=q(n-bn-a)*p(n-an-d)+q(n-bn-b)*p(n-bn-d)+q(n-bn-c)*p(n-dn-d)+.....
and so forth.
Note how changing the order of multiplication changes the numbers, step by
step, that are actually multiplied.
Beyond Heisenberg
The work of Werner Heisenberg seemed to break a log jam. Very soon, many
different other ways of explaining things came from people such as Louis de
Broglie, Max Born, Paul Dirac, Wolfgang Pauli, and Erwin Schrdinger. The work
of each of these physicists is its own story. The maths used by Heisenberg and
earlier people is not very hard to understand, but the equations quickly grew very
complicated as physicists looked more deeply into the atomic world.
Further mysteries
In the early days of quantum mechanics, Albert Einstein suggested that if it were
right then quantum mechanics would mean that there would be "spooky action at
a distance." It turned out that quantum mechanics was right, and that what
Einstein had used as a reason to reject quantum mechanics actually happened.
This kind of "spooky connection" between certain quantum events is now called
"quantum entanglement".
Two entangled particles are separated: one on Earth and one taken to some
distant planet. Measuring one of them forces it to "decide" which role to take, and
the other one must then take the other role whenever (after that) it is measured.
When an experiment brings two things (photons, electrons, etc.) together, they
must then share a common description in quantum mechanics. When they are
later separated, they keep the same quantum mechanical description or "state."
In the diagram, one characteristic (e.g., "up" spin) is drawn in red, and its mate
(e.g., "down" spin) is drawn in blue. The purple band means that when, e.g., two
electrons are put together the pair shares both characteristics. So both electrons
could show either up spin or down spin. When they are later separated, one
remaining on Earth and one going to some planet of the star Alpha Centauri, they
still each have both spins. In other words, each one of them can "decide" to show
Einstein argued that over such a great distance it was crazy to think that forcing
one electron to show its spin would then somehow make the other electron show
an opposite characteristic. He said that the two electrons must have been spin-up
or spin-down all along, but that quantum mechanics could not predict which
characteristic each electron had. Being unable to predict, only being able to look
at one of them with the right experiment, meant that quantum mechanics could
not account for something important. Therefore, Einstein said, quantum
mechanics had a big hole in it. Quantum mechanics was incomplete.
Later, it turned out that experiments showed that it was Einstein who was wrong.
[1]
Heisenberg uncertainty principle
In 1925, Werner Heisenberg described the Uncertainty principle, which says that
the more we know about where a particle is, the less we can know about how fast
it is going and in which direction. In other words, the more we know about the
speed and direction of something small, the less we can know about its position.
Physicists usually talk about the momentum in such discussions instead of
talking about speed. Momentum is just the speed of something in a certain
direction times its mass.
The reason behind Heisenberg's uncertainty principle says that we can never
know both the location and the momentum of a particle. Because light is an
abundant particle, it is used for measuring other particles. The only way to
measure it is to bounce the light wave off of the particle and record the results. If
a high energy, or high frequency, light beam is used, we can tell precisely where it
is, but cannot tell how fast it was going. This is because the high energy photon
transfers energy to the particle and changes the particle's speed. If we use a low
energy photon, we can tell how fast it is going, but not where it is. This is
because we are using light with a longer wavelength. The longer wavelength
means the particle could be anywhere along the stretch of the wave.
The principle also says that there are many pairs of measurements for which we
cannot know both of them about any particle (a very small thing), no matter how
hard we try. The more we learn about one of such a pair, the less we can know
about the other.
Even Albert Einstein had trouble accepting such a bizarre concept, and in a wellknown debate said, "God does not play dice". To this, Danish physicist Niels Bohr
famously responded, "Einstein, don't tell God what to do".
Uses of QM
Electrons surround every atom's nucleus. Chemical bonds link atoms to form
molecules. A chemical bond links two atoms when electrons are shared between
those atoms. Thus QM is the physics of the chemical bond and of chemistry. QM
helps us understand how molecules are made, and what their properties are.[2]
QM can also help us understand big things, such as stars and even the whole
universe. QM is a very important part of the theory of how the universe began
called the Big Bang.
QM is the part of physics that can explain why all electronic technology works as
it does. Thus QM explains how computers work, because computers are
electronic machines. But the designers of the early computer hardware of around
1950 or 1960 did not need to think about QM. The designers of radios and
televisions at that time did not think about QM either. However, the design of the
more powerful integrated circuits and computer memory technologies of recent
years does require QM.
QM has also made possible technologies such as:
Spectroscopy
Lasers
MRIs
CDs and DVDs
Why QM is hard to learnEdit
QM is a challenging subject for several reasons:
QM explains things in very different ways from what we learn about the world
when we are children.
Understanding QM requires more mathematics than algebra and simple calculus.
It also requires matrix algebra, complex numbers, probability theory, and partial
differential equations.
Physicists are not sure what some of the equations of QM tell us about the real
world.
QM suggests that atoms and subatomic particles behave in strange ways,
completely unlike anything we see in our everyday lives.
QM describes things that are really really small, so we cannot see some of them
without special equipment, and we cannot see many of them at all.
QM describes nature in a way that is different from how we usually think about
science. It tells us how likely to happen some things are, rather than telling us
that they certainly will happen.
Reduced Planck's constant
People often used the symbol , which is called "h-bar." = h/2. H-bar is a unit of
angular momentum. When this new unit is used to describe the orbits of
electrons in atoms, the angular momentum of any electron in orbit is always a
whole number.[4]
Example
The particle in a 1-dimensional well is the most simple example showing that the
energy of a particle can only have specific values. The energy is said to be
"quantized." The well has zero potential energy inside a range and has infinite
potential energy everywhere outside that range. For the 1-dimensional case in the
direction, the time-independent Schrdinger equation can be written as:[5]
Using differential equations, we can see that must be
or
Consider x = 0
at x = L,
If C = 0 then for all x. This solution is not useful.
therefore sin kL = 0 must be true, giving us
We can see that must be an integer. This means that the particle can only have
special energy values and cannot have the energy values in between. This is an
example of energy "quantization."