This is the weird yet incredibly powerful theory of the
subatomic world in which everyday concepts to do with forces and motion no
longer apply in the same way. Instead,
we need a new kind of mechanics based on what are called "quantum"
rules.
This idea was first developed in the early 20th century by
German physicist Max Planck, who proposed that energy comes in tiny lumps
called "quanta." The theory was extended by Albert Einstein, Niels
Bohr, Paul Dirac, and Werner Heisenberg, among several others, in the 1920s.
However, despite its tremendous success, quantum mechanics
remains shrouded in mystery because, uniquely among scientific theories, no one
really knows how or why it works. It makes certain predictions about the microscopic
world that go completely against our common sense. For instance, it explains
how an atom can exist in more than one place at the same time until we check to
see what it is up to. It also says that an electron can spin both clockwise and
counterclockwise at the same time until we measure it. These, and many more strange
properties, are not created by problems with the theory but are simply-or not
so simply, depending on your point of view -how nature behaves down at this
scale.
by Jim Al-Khalili, 30 Second Theories
No comments:
Post a Comment