Chapter 23: Quantum Mechanics and Reality
Quantum mechanics (quantum physics / quantum chemistry) was born out the desire of scientists to discover tools for making predictions and the problem that the sub-molecular world seems to behave differently from the visible world. Before they realized that the spectrum results from the necessity of energy changes at the atomic level to be in discrete levels with no in-between or partway options, they developed a model for atoms which looks like little planetary systems. Intensive research by many scientists over decades revealed that only mathematical models using probability are of use in predicting and explaining behaviour. The quantum part of the name refers to energy existing in discrete quanta / packets. The probability part of the model means that there are ranges of probabilities of locations for each electron associated with an atom, and these probabilities mean it is theoretically possible for a certain electron to be anywhere.
Another challenge is that electrons and photons behave like particles and like waves.
Scientists realized that most of the space inside of any object is empty space in terms of anything we would recognize as solid, and filled with electrical, magnetic, and gravitational fields. (Note 1 below)
But the combination of all those fields and waves is a resistance of the whole to change. To our senses, a rock is a very solid object because the combination of those fields makes the rock resistant to atoms or molecules or objects moving through the rock. For our purposes almost all the time, the rock has clear properties of being and is solid and locked into its shape and mass (usually called weight, though weight is properly the pull of gravity on mass).
Work with photons led to some scientists wondering if our thought about the property of a photon made it behave like a wave or a particle.
This combination of treating things based on our senses needs to be occasionally balanced by the reality we learned through quantum mechanics. Physics also struggles with questions about how many fields are there, really, and how they are related. The invention by astrophysics of dark matter and dark energy to explain inconsistencies on the astronomical level are another challenge to what we believe about the universe. Scientists question if the laws of nature we learned at our level apply in terms of galaxies. Poets and science fiction writers speculated about multiple universes, and now scientists are sharing in that speculation.
What we know about stuff for which our regular senses work is quite reliable most of the time. At the very tiny and large levels of being we have learned a little about how much we do not know. It is an intriguing place for faith to play a role.
Note 1: Fields are the spaces where certain kinds of forces act. Most fields have places where they are strongest with the strength of the forces diminishing as they move towards the edges of those fields. Fields have direction for those forces and are represented by vectors, symbols indicating direction and magnitude (size/strength).
Gravitational fields are essentially unlimited in space and complex as the gravitational fields of each object overlap. They always pull to the center of mass of the object, and diminish in strength at the rate of the inverse of the square of the distance from the center. When we double the distance from the center of a gravitational field, the strength reduces to a quarter of the previous strength. Strength is my short cut for magnitude of the force.
Ernest Rutherford fired high energy particles at a sheet of gold foil, expecting the particles to go straight through, but some were deflected and a very small number bounced back. From this experiment he deduced that the nucleus of an atom takes up a tiny part of the space in an atom, leaving most of the space as physically empty. It is through surprises when our experiments do not fit our theories or models that we learn more.
Quantum mechanics (quantum physics / quantum chemistry) was born out the desire of scientists to discover tools for making predictions and the problem that the sub-molecular world seems to behave differently from the visible world. Before they realized that the spectrum results from the necessity of energy changes at the atomic level to be in discrete levels with no in-between or partway options, they developed a model for atoms which looks like little planetary systems. Intensive research by many scientists over decades revealed that only mathematical models using probability are of use in predicting and explaining behaviour. The quantum part of the name refers to energy existing in discrete quanta / packets. The probability part of the model means that there are ranges of probabilities of locations for each electron associated with an atom, and these probabilities mean it is theoretically possible for a certain electron to be anywhere.
Another challenge is that electrons and photons behave like particles and like waves.
Scientists realized that most of the space inside of any object is empty space in terms of anything we would recognize as solid, and filled with electrical, magnetic, and gravitational fields. (Note 1 below)
But the combination of all those fields and waves is a resistance of the whole to change. To our senses, a rock is a very solid object because the combination of those fields makes the rock resistant to atoms or molecules or objects moving through the rock. For our purposes almost all the time, the rock has clear properties of being and is solid and locked into its shape and mass (usually called weight, though weight is properly the pull of gravity on mass).
Work with photons led to some scientists wondering if our thought about the property of a photon made it behave like a wave or a particle.
This combination of treating things based on our senses needs to be occasionally balanced by the reality we learned through quantum mechanics. Physics also struggles with questions about how many fields are there, really, and how they are related. The invention by astrophysics of dark matter and dark energy to explain inconsistencies on the astronomical level are another challenge to what we believe about the universe. Scientists question if the laws of nature we learned at our level apply in terms of galaxies. Poets and science fiction writers speculated about multiple universes, and now scientists are sharing in that speculation.
What we know about stuff for which our regular senses work is quite reliable most of the time. At the very tiny and large levels of being we have learned a little about how much we do not know. It is an intriguing place for faith to play a role.
Note 1: Fields are the spaces where certain kinds of forces act. Most fields have places where they are strongest with the strength of the forces diminishing as they move towards the edges of those fields. Fields have direction for those forces and are represented by vectors, symbols indicating direction and magnitude (size/strength).
Gravitational fields are essentially unlimited in space and complex as the gravitational fields of each object overlap. They always pull to the center of mass of the object, and diminish in strength at the rate of the inverse of the square of the distance from the center. When we double the distance from the center of a gravitational field, the strength reduces to a quarter of the previous strength. Strength is my short cut for magnitude of the force.
Ernest Rutherford fired high energy particles at a sheet of gold foil, expecting the particles to go straight through, but some were deflected and a very small number bounced back. From this experiment he deduced that the nucleus of an atom takes up a tiny part of the space in an atom, leaving most of the space as physically empty. It is through surprises when our experiments do not fit our theories or models that we learn more.
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