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Oxford University Press eBooks

The origins of quantum mechanics

Peter Joshua Atkins, Julio de Paula, James Keeler

Published Dec 5, 2022• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

This chapter traces the origins of quantum mechanics. The classical mechanics developed by Isaac Newton in the seventeenth century is an extraordinarily successful theory for describing the motion of everyday objects and planets. However, late in the nineteenth century, scientists started to make observations that could not be explained by classical mechanics. They were forced to revise their entire conception of the nature of matter and replace classical mechanics by a theory that became known as quantum mechanics. The chapter begins by looking at energy quantization, considering black-body radiation, heat capacity, and atomic and molecular spectra. It then discusses wave–particle duality, which is the recognition that the concepts of particle and wave blend together.

DOI
10.1093/hesc/9780198847816.003.0033

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This chapter traces the origins of quantum mechanics. The classical mechanics developed by Isaac Newton in the seventeenth century is an extraordinarily successful theory for describing the motion of everyday objects and planets. However, late in the nineteenth century, scientists started to make observations that could not be explained by classical mechanics. They were forced to revise their entire conception of the nature of matter and replace classical mechanics by a theory that became known as quantum mechanics. The chapter begins by looking at energy quantization, considering black-body radiation, heat capacity, and atomic and molecular spectra. It then discusses wave–particle duality, which is the recognition that the concepts of particle and wave blend together.
This chapter examines the historical development of quantum mechanics, focusing on key experiments and theories that challenged classical physics. It begins with blackbody radiation, highlighting the discrepancy between classical predictions and experimental observations, leading to Planck's quantization hypothesis, which posits that energy is emitted in discrete packets (quanta). The chapter covers the photoelectric effect and Compton scattering, demonstrating wave–particle duality and validating quantum theory. It also discusses atomic models, culminating in the Bohr model and the energy-level diagram of the hydrogen atom, which explains atomic phenomena such as line spectra and discrete energy transitions. The chapter concludes by introducing the quantum model, which supersedes the Bohr model by incorporating wave–particle duality and the uncertainty principle, highlighting the necessity of quantum mechanics for accurate atomic-scale descriptions.
This chapter looks at the experimental evidence towards the end of the nineteenth century that showed that classical mechanics failed when it was applied to very small particles and when the transfers of energy were very small. It discusses classical mechanics and shows how it predicts a precise trajectory for particles, with specified locations and moments at each instant. It also describes experiments which have showed that energy was transferred only in discrete amounts and showed that electromagnetic radiation behaves like a stream of particles. The chapter analyzes how electrons, which had been supposed to be particles since their discovery in 1897, can behave like waves. It reviews the translational, rotational, and vibrational modes of motion that are excited to any energy simply by controlling the forces that are applied.
This article analyzes the scientific problems that arose at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries due to the limitations of classical physics, particularly the issues of measuring the speed of light and the radiation of a blackbody. This article highlights the concept of quantization proposed by M. Planck and its significance in resolving these problems. The formation of quantum mechanics, its main concepts, its role in describing the laws of motion of micro-objects, and its connection with classical mechanics are discussed in detail in this section. Furthermore, this article examines the fundamental concepts of quantum mechanics: discreteness, wave-particle duality, and the significance of Planck’s constant. This article also addresses the challenges of teaching quantum mechanics and ways to overcome them, including the effectiveness of using the case study method.
The aim of this chapter is to present some very basic principles of classical mechanics. They can help us understand the novelty of quantum theory. Classical mechanics was founded by Newton and contemporary 17th-century natural philosophers, and further developed in the 18th and 19th centuries by many physicists and mathematicians, as a result of the search for a rational, causal, and scientific explanation of the universe. In classical mechanics, real-world objects are modeled as a collection of point particles, i.e., objects with negligible size. The motion of a point particle is characterized by a small number of parameters such as its position, mass, velocity, and the forces applied to it. The position of a point particle is defined with respect to an arbitrary fixed reference point in the three- dimensional Euclidean space, which is usually chosen as the origin of some coordinate system. The velocity of a point particle is the rate of change of its position with time. The force applied to a point particle (called the external force) is the cause for the point particle x y z A to undergo a certain change in its velocity, i.e., an acceleration (Newton’s second law of motion). For the sake of simplicity, here we shall refer to a point particle or a collection of point particles simply as an object. Newton’s first law of motion states that if an object experiences no net external force, then its velocity is constant, i.e., the object is either at rest or it moves in a straight line with a constant speed. The first law of motion postulates the existence of a certain set of frames of reference called inertial reference frames, relative to which the motion of an object not subject to external forces is a straight line at a constant speed. For this reason, Newton’s first law is also referred to as the law of inertia.
Science has developed through a variety of investigations more or less over the time scale of human existence. On this scale, quantum mechanics is an extremely young field, existing essentially for only just over a century. Even our understanding of classical mechanics has existed for a comparatively long period—roughly having been formalized with Newton's equations published in his Principia Mathematica , in April 1686 (1687). Up until the very end of the nineteenth century, mechanics in the form of Newton's laws were comfortable, being understood and accepted by all who dealt with the motion of reasonable bodies. With the turn of the new century, however, mechanics would be shaken to its roots. The change began already on December 14, 1900, when Planck (1900) presented his new theory of black-body radiation to the German Physical Society, and this change would affect mechanics in physically small structures (and lead to quantum mechanics). Mechanics of large bodies would similarly be changed in 1905 with the arrival of Albert Einstein's (1905a) relativity theory. In this book, we will deal with only the first of these two great breakthroughs.