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Article:
It's a Quantum Thing by: Maya Talisman Frosst We don't need to understand quantum physics entirely in order to appreciate it. Even those who have devoted their lives to the study of the universe and its atomic structure will admit that many mysteries remain. Well, I love mysteries, so let's set the scene for this one... There's a Big Bang. 'Whoosh!' go all the molecules. Much swirling commences. Fast forward 12 billion years (give or take a billion) to present day. People all over the world watch sci-fi movies, read physics texts, attend harmonic convergence gatherings, study nanotechnology, and gaze at the stars. Our questions: How did we get here? Who are we? Where is here? Why? What next? If you're expecting quantum theory to answer those questions, you're going to be disappointed. However, it does give us some heady new ways to anticipate those answers. Let's take a look at some terms. Back in the fifth century BC, our Greek friend Democritus had the idea that all matter is ultimately made up of tiny grains that cannot be divided into smaller pieces. He called these little pieces 'atoms'¯ for the Greek phrase 'a-tomos'¯ which means 'uncuttable'¯. Poor Democritus didn't have the advantage of sophisticated microscopes, so it's not surprising that, centuries later, it was discovered that atoms are actually cuttable. In fact, atoms are themselves made up of tiny particles we've dubbed neutrons, protons, electrons and neutrinos. But it doesn't stop there. Now we're thinking that leptons, along with quarks, are the tiniest of particles of all and currently considered the ultimate building blocks of nature. Since we keep finding particles inside particles and adding new names to pieces of atoms, it's easier to refer to the smallest chunks into which something can be divided as quanta. The German physicist Max Planck first proposed that energy might come in little pieces called quanta back in the early 1900s. So when we talk about quantum theory, we're just referring to the whole set of ideas surrounding the microscopic world of atoms. Along comes Albert Einstein, who recognizes that this whole idea of quantum physics turns classical physics on its head and spins it around. Here all these scientists had developed theories and precise formulas for calculating predictably and consistently the ways in which bodies move. Now there's this idea that little particles actually behave in ways we can't predict with certainty. These tiny quanta are mysterious. They respond sometimes as particles, and sometimes as waves, and we can't always tell which way they're going to go. If a particle is traveling from point A to point B, we can guess its path, but the tinier the particle, the less sure we are that that exact path is the one taken. In fact'”hold on to your hat here'”we've come to understand that not only do we not know the exact path, but that the particles may actually be in two places at once. Think that's radical? Back in '1957
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