What Is Quantum Mechanics Essay

Cherop Soi

Mrs. Foley

Physics

November 14, 2017 Quantum Mechanics

Quantum Mechanics developed over many decades beginning as a set of controversial mathematical explanations of experiments that the math of classical mechanics could not explain. It began in the turn of the 20th century, a separate mathematical revolution in physics that describes the motion of things at high speeds. The origins of Quantum Mechanics cannot be credited to any one scientists. Multiple scientists contributed to a foundation of three revolutionary principles that gradually gained acceptance and experiment verification from 1900-1930 (Coolman). Quantum Mechanics is

Quantum Mechanics is a branch of physics that describes the structure and behavior of matter.

Quantum mechanics describes several objects and phenomena that seem strange and are difficult to understand. Among these are quanta “chunks” of energy; the wave-particle duality of matter; and the uncertainty principle which limits what we can know about objects. In 1927, German physicist Werner Heisenberg discovered a general characteristic of quantum mechanics, the uncertainty principle. According to this principle, it is impossible to precisely describe both the location and the momentum of a particle at the same time, therefore it affects the attempts to measure a particle’s location and

In 1907, Einstein used Planck’s hypothesis of quantization to explain why the temperature of a solid changed by different amounts if you put the same amount of heat into the material. Since the early 1800’s, the science of spectroscopy had shown that different elements emit and absorb specific colors of light called “spectral lines.” In 1888, Johannes Rydberg derived an equation that described the spectral lines emitted by hydrogen, though nobody could explain why the equation worked. This changed in 1913 when Danish physicist Niel Bohr applied Planck’s hypothesis of quantization to Ernest Rutherford’s 1911 “planetary” model of the atom, which affirmed that electrons orbited the nucleus the same way that planets orbit the sun. Bohr offered an explanation for why electrical attraction does not make the electrons spiral into the nucleus. He said that electrons in atoms can change their energy only by absorbing or emitting quanta. When an electron absorbs a quantum it moves quickly to orbit farther from nucleus. When an electron emits a quantum the electron jumps to a closer