Custom Search
Showing posts with label Quantum-Theory. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Quantum-Theory. Show all posts
- Energy is not continuous, but comes in small but discrete units.
- The elementary particles behave both like particles and like waves.
- The movement of these particles is inherently random.
- It is physically impossible to know both the position and the momentum of a particle at the same time. The more precisely one is known, the less precise the measurement of the other is.
- The atomic world is nothing like the world we live in.
There is a new branch of science called Super String Theory or M Theory, which is further demonstrating that the material universe is just an illusion. Every atom and particle is not solid but made up of what theorectical physicists call strings of vibrational energy and they are so small that if an atom is the size of the Solar system, each one of the strings that make it up would be anywhere from the size of a tree on Earth or the size of an atom compared to the size of the atom, which has been extrapolated to the size of the Solar System. If there is no solidity whatsoever then it is easy to understand how the entire universe can expand from the point of the Big Bang.
In former times scientists thought that light consists of waves and that electrons, neutrons and protons are particles. But Scientists have discovered that sometimes light has got a wave character and sometimes light has got a particle character but not only light also the other particles which I mentioned sometimes have got a wave character. There is an experiment which shows that light can have a particle character. For this experiment we need a metal plate. When we irradiate this metal plate with light it can happen that some of the electrons of some atoms will leave their atomic shell. But when no electron leaves the atomic shell a classical physicist would say that the intensity is to low and what we need a stronger light source or that we must give the light nearer to the metal plate. But this would not help, because light consists of photons and when we have got a higher intensity there are more photons which bombard the electrons, but one electron can only absorb one photon. This means that the energy of the photon is responsible, wheather an electron leaves his atomic shell or not. The electrons are holded by the positive charged atomic nucleus and so they need a certain energy to break out. So we need radiation with a shorter wavelength to give the electrons enough energy. If the wavelength is shorter the energy and the frequency are higher. Which wavelength do we need depends on the atoms. Simple light is to little so that we need ultraviolet light for example. All this is called photoelectric effect. The best possibility to make this experiment is with an electroscope. There is also an experiment which show us that electrons can have a wave character. It is the double gap experiment which I will describe later, because he is the most important experiment for quantum physics and the consequences of him might change your conception of the world.
25th May, 2010
Australian scientists Monday unveiled the world's smallest electronic switch measuring just a few atoms, which will shrink microchips and revolutionise computing speeds. The seven-atom transistor, measuring four-billionths of a metre and embedded in a single silicone crystal, is the first step in a "quantum computer" which will make calculations millions of times faster than existing devices.
Lead researcher Michelle Simmons said the technology has major implications for code-breaking, financial transactions and weather forecasting, which involve testing enormous numbers of possible scenarios.
"You'll be able to solve problems that would take longer than the life of the universe with a classical computer," she told AFP. The University of New South Wales' Centre for Quantum Computer Technology (CQCT) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison created the transistor by manipulating atoms using a special microscope.
The breakthrough promises to reduce the size of microchips, which contain billions of transistors, by up to 100 times, simultaneously accelerating processing speeds exponentially.
"Australia's first computer was commissioned in 1949. It took up an entire room and you could hold its components in your hands," Simmons said.
"Today you can carry a computer around in your hand and many of its components are more than 1000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. "Now we have just demonstrated the world's first electronic device in silicon systematically created on the scale of individual atoms."
Simmons said commercial applications for the technology were about five years away. Her team is now working towards the first ultra-fast quantum computer, predicted to be the size of a current silicone chip.
Quantum: Quantum is the minimal unit of any kind of physical entity. In simple words, it is the smallest quantity that can be thought of. For example: Photon is the smallest element of light, thus photon is the light quantum.
One another example that I can think of is the digital technology that we use intensely. We have now microprocessor, transistors and so on. But the basis of all these things starts with the concept of bits and bytes. Similarly, the physical world that we pass around is also composed of bits. These infinitesimal objects are the quanta. Everything is made up of small bits called quantum.
(Note: one quantum, two quanta)
Quantum modelling was started by famous German physicist Max Plank in 1900 which then was followed by Albert Einstein and the field is still flourishing till the date. The breakfast era of Quantum Mechanics includes names like Pauli, Heisenberg, Schrödinger, Born, Rutherford and Bohr. Eventually we are in a new era and by now we have better understanding of the quantum and the way universe works.
Believing the unbelievable: The world of quanta or the world of small is different to the world that we face. It is thus a vague part of physics to come across quantum mechanics. One has to reformat himself and the way he thinks. The system of logic works in a different way in a quantum world. The other thing one should not be confused is that the quantum world works differently compared to our world although they are the fundamentals of our world. As an example, steam is hot while ice is cold in our living world. On the other hand, the quantum world defines that they are composed of similar quanta and hence they have similar properties. Such logics make the world of quanta very different to our world.Applications of Quantum Mechanics:-
Planck's constant is very important to quantum theory and quantum mechanics in general. It states that the energy of each quantum is equal to the frequency of the radiation multiplied by the universal constant: E=f*h, where h is 6.63 * 10E-34 Js.
Quantum mechanics can be referred to as the mathematical description of physical reality of the matter, like almost any other scientific model. According to quantum mechanics the most complete description we can make of a system is its wavefunction, which is mathematically speaking just a number varying between time and place.
Quantum theory can provide accurate descriptions for phenomenons such as black body radiation and the stability of electron orbitals.
The famous quantum theory of the atom was primarily developed as an explanation for the electron's staying in its orbital, which couldn't at that time be explained by Newton's laws of motion.
Quantum particles have one very unique property, namely they can be in different states at the same time. This is referred to as the "superposition" of two conditions. Based on this for instance the 'spin' of an electron can be pointing in two different directions at once.
Many scientists believe that super-fast quantum computer are only matter of time.
Quantum computers have also unlimited potential and they are likely able to fix problems that would normally take millions of years to solve, much faster than ordinary computers. Currently the biggest problem with development of quantum computers is that scientists can only hold a limited number of atoms in place for a very short period of time.
Quantum mechanics allows a quantum computer built on these principles (still theoretical, to perform tasks that are currently thought impossible to do efficiently on a normal computer, for instance breaking with ease all currently possible encryption standards.
Quantum mechanics plays key role for understanding how individual atoms combine covalently to form chemicals or molecules, and is so well used in chemistry that is even known under the name of quantum chemistry.
Quantum mechanics has had significant impact on today's modern technology such as lasers, transistors and diodes.