why use quantum mechanics

A detailed Summary of why use quantum mechanics

Quantum Mechanics is the science of subatomic particles and their behavior patterns that are observed in nature. As the foundation of scientific knowledge approached the start of the twentieth century, problems began to arise over the fact that classic physical ideas were not capable of explaining the observed behavior of subatomic particles. In 1913, the Danish physicist Neils Bohr, proposed a successful quantum model of the atom that began the process of a more defined understanding of its subatomic particles. It was accepted in the early part of the twentieth century that light traveled as both waves and particles. The reason light appears to act as a wave and particle is because we are noticing the accumulation of many light particles distributed over the probabilities of where each particle could be. In 1923, Louis De Broglie hypothesized that subatomic particles exhibit wavelike and particle properties for the same reason. The success of these theories inspired physicists to developed a way to describe the behavior of subatomic phenomena in terms of both waves and particles by means of mathematics.

Most physicists were slow to accept matrix mechanics because of its abstract nature. Erwin Schrodinger came up with a mathematical equation which nicely described the wave nature of electrons. Scientists gladly welcomed Schrodinger's alternative wave mechanics when it appeared in early 1926 since it entailed more familiar concepts and equations. This led to much easier calculations and more familiar visualizations of atomic events than did Heisenberg's matrix mechanics. Schrodinger's equation provides us with information about the probability of finding the particle in a location at some future time. We can state that the probability of finding the object at each point is high or low, but we can never say with certainty where the object will be at a future time.

Bohr drew a relation between uncertainty, and the statistical interpretation of Schrodinger's wave function, and published a proof that matrix and wave mechanics gave equivalent results-mathematically they were the same theory. Together, the two theories formed a logical interpretation of the physical meaning of quantum mechanics that became known as the "Copenhagen Interpreta

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Approximate Word count = 775
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Science

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why use quantum mechanics

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