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Monday, 16 November 2009 07:53 |
It is often stated that of all the theories proposed in this
century, the silliest is quantum theory. Some say the the only
thing that quantum theory has going for it, in fact, is that it
is unquestionably correct.
- R. Feynman
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- quantum mechanics is to the microscopic world what classic mechanics and
 calculus is to the macroscopic world
- it is the operational process of calculating quantum physics phenomenon
- its primary task is to bring order and prediction to the uncertainty of the quantum world, its main tool is Schrodinger's equation
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The field of quantum mechanics concerns the description of phenomenon on small scales where classical physics breaks down. The biggest difference between the classical and microscopic realm, is that the quantum world can be not be perceived directly, but rather through the use of instruments. And a key assumption to an quantum physics is that quantum mechanical principles must reduce to Newtonian principles at the macroscopic level (there is a continuity between quantum and Newtonian mechanics).
Quantum mechanics was capable of bringing order to the uncertainty of the microscopic world by treatment of the wave function with new mathematics. Key to this idea was the fact that relative probabilities of different possible states are still determined by laws. Thus, there is a difference between the role of chance in quantum mechanics and the unrestricted chaos of a lawless Universe.
Every quantum particle is characterized by a wave function. In 1925 Erwin Schrodinger developed the differential equation which describes the evolution of those wave functions. By using Schrodinger equation, scientists can find the wave function which solves a particular problem in quantum mechanics. Unfortunately, it is usually impossible to find an exact solution to the equation, so certain assumptions are used in order to obtain an approximate answer for the particular problem.
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- the key difference between quantum and classical mechanics is the role of probability and chance
- quantum objects are described by probability fields, however, this does not mean they are indeterminit, only uncertain
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The difference between quantum mechanics and newtonian mechanics is the role of probability and statistics. While the uncertainty principle means that quantum objects have to be described by probability fields, this doesn't mean that the microscopic world fails to conform to deterministic laws. In fact it does. And measurement is an act by which the measurer and the measured interact to produce a result. Although this is not simply the determination of a preexisting property.
The quantum description of reality is objective (weak form) in the sense that everyone armed with a quantum physics education can do the same experiments and come to the same conclusions. Strong objectivity, as in classical physics, requires that the picture of the world yielded by the sum total of all experimental results to be not just a picture or model, but identical with the objective world, something that exists outside of us and prior to any measurement we might have of it. Quantum physics does not have this characteristic due to its built-in indeterminacy.
For centuries, scientists have gotten used to the idea that something like strong objectivity is the foundation of knowledge. So much so that we have come to believe that it is an essential part of the scientific method and that without this most solid kind of objectivity science would be pointless and arbitrary. However, the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics (see below) denies that there is any such thing as a true and unambiguous reality at the bottom of everything. Reality is what you measure it to be, and no more. No matter how uncomfortable science is with this viewpoint, quantum physics is extremely accurate and is the foundation of modern physics (perhaps then an objective view of reality is not essential to the conduct of physics). And concepts, such as cause and effect, survive only as a consequence of the collective behavior of large quantum systems.
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