Day 8: Quantum Mechanics And Its Mysteries

An experiment involving quantum mechanics.

          I love quantum mechanics. It's probably one of my favorite topics in astrophysics because it makes no sense when you examine the laws of physics. There is so much controversy about it, and it's causing a big stir in the scientific world. For a while now, in science, quantum mechanics has been like an arrow pointing in multiple directions. The laws sometimes go against each other. For example, it seems that whenever something is proven, something else already proven suggests that it cannot be true, yet they are both proven to be true. That is one of the aspects that thrills me to learn about quantum mechanics.
          Quantum theory was first developed when Max Planck was doing an experiment and he realized that the laws of physics couldn't explain what had happened. This lead to the development of quantum mechanics. According to quantum mechanics, the atomic world is nothing like the world we live in. Quantum mechanics is, in a nutshell, a set of laws that govern the physical behaviors at the atomic and sub-atomic level. It deals with mathematical descriptions of the motion and interaction of subatomic particles, incorporating the concepts of quantization of energy, wave-particle duality, the uncertainty principle, and the correspondence principle. The uncertainty principle basically states that you cannot know both the position and momentum of a particle at the same time. The more precisely one is known, the less precise the other is. Another weird law in quantum mechanics states that the movement of the atomic/sub-atomic particles is completely random.
          Wave-particle duality is also a strange aspect. All particles act like both particles and waves, or, more accurately, are neither. They are undefined until someone looks at them or performs an experiment, therefore forcing them to be one or the other. Confusing, right? Looking at a particle can determine what it is. It makes no sense, and neither does this. Recently, I watched an episode of Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman. One scientist proposed the idea that particles can be in two places at once. Scientists are still debating about these topics, and from the looks of it, they will continue to for years to come. That's the beauty of quantum mechanics.