CRC Press eBooks

Quantum Wonderland

Hasan S. Padamsee

Published Feb 7, 2020• 0 citations

Abstract

At the turn of the 20th century, Max Planck and Albert Einstein introduced the quantum theory which revolutionized our understanding of the nature of energy, in particular the nature of light energy. According to Planck, energy is absorbed or emitted from hot objects in tiny discrete bundles called quanta, and each quantum carries a precise quantity of energy which is related to the frequency of light wave. Einstein generalized Planck’s quantum theory. Einstein’s quantum theory removed a grating asymmetry in nature, between energy and matter. Louis DeBroglie said proposed that if light waves behave as particles, electrons, normally thought of as particles, ought to reciprocally behave as waves. DeBroglie provided a crucial missing piece in the quantum puzzle of discrete Bohr orbitals. Erwin Schroedinger seized DeBroglie’s brain wave. He developed a “wave mechanics” to describe the quantum world. For Schroedinger, particles are just an “illusion” of many waves; he turned waves into particles.

DOI: 10.1201/9780429424410-12

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