by SEG

Created on: February 08, 2011   Last Updated: March 23, 2012

While twenty first century Quantum mechanics is highly abstract and counter-intuitive it’s not that difficult to glean a fundamental understanding of this branch of modern physics by following its history.

If we alter our usual ways of thinking that is because our adaptive thinking is not modeled on such small scale quantum dimensions- they’re outside of our ‘sensory band’ of every day perceptions and non-intuitive.

Basically, quantum mechanics describes a sub-atomic, nano-microscopic level of reality that dips into atomic nuclei that are a hundred thousand times smaller than an atom itself and this tiny abstract realm is still not fully understood by scientists today…

“… beyond the fact that it is a mathematically coherent theory, the only reason we believe in quantum mechanics is because it yields predictions that have been verified to astounding accuracy” (Brian Greene, 1999)

While the intuitive, every day physics of Isaac Newton’s laws of motion and gravity (1) give us a solid ‘hands-on’ theory of reality, that concrete picture of the world began to scientifically unravel in the mid-nineteenth century as technological advancements provided scientists with ever increasing depths and accuracies of experimental detection: the complex objects and motions of the world around us lose their solid material and predictive qualities the deeper we peer into them and our sciences were becoming increasingly abstract as a result.

James Clerk Maxwell’s 1861-62 electromagnetic theory of relativity established the idea of  ‘fields’ of radiation – an infinite spectrum [of frequencies] of energy-carrying ‘waves’ that are (with the exception of visible light waves)  perceptually undetectable disturbances traveling at the fixed and never changing speed of light: 299,792,458 meters per second.

But to prove valid [any] theory must become pragmatically predictable and useful but Newtonian based 19th century physics was not up-to-par with Maxwell’s theoretical leap; modern quantum theory decrees a direct proportionality between wave-frequency and energy yet turn of the century physicists lacked this formula when they attempted to calculate the energy of the electromagnetic waves radiating inside an oven [of a chosen temperature]; all they got was nonsensical results- infinite and useless results (Greene, p. 88).     

Physicist Max Planck solved

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