Astrophysicist Paul Sutter explains Quantum Mechanics - the body of scientific laws that describe the wacky behavior of photons, electrons and the other particles that make up the universe.
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00:00Quantum mechanics is our fundamental framework for understanding the physics,
00:06the behavior of the very very small. I'm talking like atoms, molecules, and
00:12subatomic particles. I'm Paul Sutter and this is Paul Explains, the show where I,
00:19you know, explain. There's three big pieces to quantum mechanics. One of the
00:27pieces is in the name itself, this idea of quantization, that certain properties
00:35of subatomic systems like energy or angular momentum come in discrete levels
00:44or packets or what we call quanta, hence the name quantization. For example, an
00:50electron in an atom can't have any old energy that it feels like. No, it can
00:57have only certain energy levels. That's because the energy levels in an atom are
01:03quantized. This is a fundamental core tenant of quantum mechanics and it's very
01:08different than the physics of the macroscopic world. Another key
01:13component of quantum mechanics is something we call wave particle duality,
01:17where tiny things sometimes act like particles, like tiny little bullets, tiny
01:25little billiard balls, tiny little ping pong balls bouncing around doing
01:28everything that particles do, and sometimes also act like waves, where they're more
01:35sloshing around or they interfere with each other. Depending on what you're looking
01:41for and how you're looking for it, sometimes, sometimes it might act like a
01:46little bit of both. And the last bit is that quantum mechanics and subatomic systems
01:52are ruled by probabilities and uncertainty. Up here in the macroscopic world, if you can
01:59know exactly where something is and exactly how fast it's moving and you can predict,
02:05using the laws of physics, exactly where it's going to be, exactly where it's going to go.
02:10But you don't get that kind of precise knowledge in the subatomic world.
02:17You don't always know exactly where something is, like an electron. You don't always know where an
02:21electron is or how fast it's going. And once you do know where it is, or at least have some idea,
02:29you don't know exactly where it's going to go. Instead, it's going to be a range of probabilities.
02:36Our understanding of quantum mechanics underlies so many things. Atomic and nuclear power,
02:44all of that is thanks to our understanding of quantum mechanics, microchips, semiconductors,
02:50lasers and LED, and even biology. So, you know, a bunch of physicists playing around in the early 20th
02:57century gave us this major cornerstone of many fields of science.