What even is quantum mechanics?
In the realm of very small things, regular, Newtonian physics breaks down. An accurate description of things is only possible by the means of quantum mechanics. But that’s where the weirdness starts:
- Particles and waves are the same thing (a different way of looking at the same thing???)
- Calculations are made with a so called wave function 𝚿 (what’s that???)
- The wave function by itself isn’t observable (okay???)
- But its value squared gives the probability of finding the particle at a certain position in space.
- It encompasses all possible (and impossible) outcomes with their probability
- It “collapses” and disappears (kinda never existed in the first place?) upon measurement. One of the above possibilities is measured as the actual outcome. For all we know, which one of these states is measured is completely random. Similar to somebody throwing a dice to decide the outcome.
Some of the effects of QM are,
- Particles can’t ever be at rest.
It comes from Heisenberg’s uncertainty relation, which says that the position and momentum of a particle can never be determined accurately at the same time.
- Only certain (quantized) states are allowed.
It’s a bit similar to standing on a staircase, in the sense that you can only stand at specific heights above the ground (equal to 0, 1, 2, etc. stair steps high). This is in contrast to for example standing on a ramp, which allows you to be at any possible height above the ground.
- And not to forget, particles seem to go in places they can’t be. “Can’t be” means they don’t have enough energy to be there.
That would be like bouncing a ball off the wall, but instead of bouncing off it goes into the wall to turn around… (Quantum tunneling)
A weird concept
Dear reader, if at this point you are utterly confused and don’t understand anything, that’s actually quite normal. To cite Niels Bohr, one of the founding fathers of quantum mechanics: “If quantum mechanics hasn’t profoundly shocked you, you haven’t understood it yet.” Feynmann expressed it like this, according to legend: “Anyone who claims to understand quantum theory is either lying or crazy.” So we are truly in the best company 🙂
Really? That’s called science these days?
Already Einstein shared this feeling. He worked on the photoelectric effect and was the first person to suggest that light can at times be particles. This research unleashed a storm in the physics community, as evidenced by the publication “100 authors against Einstein”.
Even more than a century later, quantum mechanics is pretty much the most battle tested theory in the history of physics, and we’re still very far from making sense of it.
Later on, even Einstein had some qualms with quantum theory. In his own words: “God does not play dice,” referring to the analogy I made above.
What does this imply for our worldview?
It’s almost impossible to wrap your head around particles and waves being the same thing. But that’s not where the conflicts with our normal world view end. Thinking through the consequences, one cannot help a feeling, which Einstein expressed in the following words: “Time and space are modes by which we think and not conditions in which we live.”
So it seems that even the most fundamental units of our perceptions of reality have to be reconsidered. If even time and space have to be questioned, what are the things which we can ascertain to be true?
