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Quantum physics for beginners, for

understand it once and for all


Quantum mechanics explained in a simple way for children, adults and
anyone looking to understand quantum physics

Quantum physics is one of the greatest twists, after the theory of


relativity, that has happened in the history of science.

At the beginning of the 20th century it was thought that everything


was completely clear.

Many do not know this theory at all. What is quantum physics ?


What does it study or what is it for?

In the next post we will give you a review of this intriguing and very
complex world that has taken us to the most hidden and wonderful
places of a universe that we did not know until no less than 100 years
ago in a kind of “quantum physics for dummies”.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. What is quantum physics?


2. Quantum physics for kids
3. Quantum physics for beginners
4. How did quantum physics emerge?
1. The ultraviolet catastrophe
2. Max Planck, the father of quantum theory
3. The photoelectric effect, Einstein's theory
4. Louis V. de Broglie and wave-particle duality
5. Erwin Schrödinger and quantum mechanics
6. Schrödinger's cat, paradox
7. The double slit experiment
8. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle
5. Conclusions of quantum theory

What is quantum physics?

First things first guys, the most basic things so as not to


get lost, taking into account that we are beginners in this theory ,
because I warn you, we must be clear that it will get complicated if
we do not know the most basic concepts.
Quantum physics , quantum mechanics or quantum theory , is
the study of the microscopic world or fundamental state of matter,
where the laws that we knew and believed were universal and
applied to everything, are not valid . Or at least they are not
fulfilled as we thought.

So far so good on that side, but why is it said that quantum


mechanics is complicated?

On the atomic scale, the behavior of the particles that make up


matter, atoms, molecules, electrons, protons, etc., makes the study of
quantum mechanics seem stupid, being a bit incomprehensible and
convoluted.

Their concepts clash with the notions that we


They are familiar since they derive from the observations we make
daily of nature on the macroscopic scale.

Quantum physics for kids

If you want to teach quantum theory to the little ones, don't miss
the opportunity to show them this video where they explain in a
fun way the double slit experiment, a quantum physics experiment
explained for children and that they will also like to see.

In the next lines of this post I will tell you a little more about this
topic. Before I would like you to see the video.

https://youtu.be/hwa9jl8R1bU

Quantum physics for beginners

Quantum physics or quantum mechanics is a subject that itches


and spreads , broad enough that it remains incomplete and without
being completely deciphered, what we know is a drop of water in
this great ocean of knowledge.
Therefore, do not feel like a beginner or a dummy for not
knowing much , because those of us who study it are not scholars of
these theories nor do we know everything.

In this article on quantum physics for beginners I will talk with


the supporting story, about this fascinating world and unlike the
video that is in the previous title, I will express myself with a slightly
more mature and technical language but I promise you that you
will not get lost. , it will be simple.

How did quantum physics emerge?

At the beginning of the 20th century, it was thought that everything


was clear, it was thought that the movement was governed by a
series of laws that we believed were universal and absolute.

However, some revolutionary scientists of the time began to ask the


right questions to shake the foundations of physics and the world.

The ultraviolet catastrophe

The problems of classical physics arose when a series of problems


were inexplicable under its precepts. These complex problems were
paradoxically found in the simplest and most everyday objects.

One of these objects was the electric light bulb. Scientists were
unable to explain why when they heated the filament of a light
bulb , it radiated a reddish-yellowish light.

Wanting to find a solution to this problem, a character named Lord


Raileigh , author of what was called the ultraviolet catastrophe,
enters the scene.
Lord Raileigh wondered why when you heated different objects to
different temperatures, they radiated different wavelengths (or as
some would say, different colors, but this is a science and technology
blog, so let's start talking like one).

In classical electromagnetism, an ideal black body should emit all


frequency ranges , in this way by continuing to heat the material we
would see a change in wavelengths in each temperature range.

The equation obtained was the following:

Where: [I(v)] is the spectral radiance

[T] is the temperature


[KB] is the Boltzman constant
[C] the speed of light

According to this equation, called the Rayleigh-Jeans law , the


energy density emitted for each frequency had to be proportional to
the square of the last one.

Which implies that emissions at high frequencies, ultraviolet, should


carry large amounts of energy.

All this seemed fine, but when adding the emissions from all
frequency ranges, the values tend to infinity.
In conclusion, ultraviolet rays were waves with infinite energy
and this was an impossible fact since it was known that the earth was
bombarded by these rays at every moment.

Max Planck, the father of quantum theory

Although many of you may find it unnecessary to know about the


ultraviolet catastrophe, it was this that prompted Max Planck to think
about more radical and revolutionary ideas that led to founding
the foundations of a new paradigm.

Max Planck, a German physicist, thought that if the temperature of a


body was increased, it would have more energy and therefore, the
wavelength radiated would be longer, that is, in shades of blue.
However, it was not explained why the light from hot objects
radiated red .

Nor could he explain why if the temperature increased, the objects


gave off less light.

It was Planck who rearranged Rayleigh's approach and showed


that no matter what material the radiating object is made of ,
they will radiate the same wavelength if they are at the same
temperature.

For his work, he was based on Maxwell's until now irrefutable


electromagnetic theory , which we will talk about at another time.

Although there was nothing in these equations that related energy to


frequency, Max managed to arrive at a result that not even he
himself knew the magnitude of such an expression .

He expressed his logic in it and arrived at the expression that the


energy had to be equal to the frequency for a value “h” unknown for
now.

E = hf

After carrying out his hypotheses and experiments, he realized that h,


now known as Planck's constant , was a constant that was repeated
in all the tests he performed.

This value of “h” was:

6.6256.62606957(29)×10-34 Js (Joule Second)

This search for the explanation of shiny bodies led Max Planck to
find a truth much greater than what he

he imagined , demonstrating with his theory a new and fundamental


truth about nature.

Light is emitted and absorbed in discrete packets of energy and this is the same for a simple
light bulb as for the sun.

This idea was radical and revealing in the field of quantum


mechanics and did not wait long for its confirmation. Today we
know that energy is quantized and we call it quantum energy .

The photoelectric effect, Einstein's theory


It was not for his work on the theory of relativity that earned Einstein
his Nobel Prize in physics but for his explanation of the
photoelectric effect in 1921.

Einstein formulated in his theory that for an electron to escape from


a metal, it had to be excited by an energy packet to supply it with the
necessary amount of energy, called extraction work or work
function .

In the photoelectric principle, it can be said that if an electron


absorbs energy supplied by ultraviolet light with the
energy given by Planck's equation, would be more than enough to
leave the metal .

scheme of the photoelectric


effect
This solution was proven by Robert A. Milikan when he measured
the energy of electrons ejected from different metals.

Not only did he prove that each metal has a different extraction work
but that Planck's constant has a universal value for each material .

This proved Planck's theory and that discrete packets of energy


existed, or as we said earlier, quantum energy . In simpler words,
light comes to us in particles that after a while were called photons.

Louis V. de Broglie and wave-particle


duality
Louis de Broglie
Wasn't light a wave?
(pronounced Louis de
brogli) was a French physicist who in the 1920s posited the dual
nature of light .
This referred to the fact that light could be a particle and a wave at
the same time, so it was possible for other particles such as electrons
to comply with this same principle of the theory, by being able to
behave as waves and particles at the same time.

What was most impressive about De Broglie's discovery was that he


mixed several theories, which were Einstein's and Planck's
relativity .

Lois de Broglie discovered that not only particles can behave like
waves but waves can also behave like particles , thereby making a
great contribution to quantum physics.

This approach explained Niels Bohr's theory of the atom almost by


accident.

Niels Bohr was convinced that electrons revolved around the nucleus
of the atom and they did so in orbits just as the planets do so around
the Sun.

Not all orbits were allowed, only orbits of certain sizes, only those
and there were no spaces in between. However, this was not entirely
true, something we will see on another occasion.

Thus Louis De Broglie had elegantly explained Neils Bohr's


model of the atom , and what is known among many as his
contribution to the atomic model that has been studied a lot.

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