Tricky said:
I confess, I don't spend a lot of time in the science forum, even though I am a scientist (geologist) myself. I also confess I am a lazy bastige, and I don't want to have to wade through complex mathmatical theory.
So here is my request:
Could one (or some) of you physicist types give me a thumbnail sketch of quantum physics? (Sort of a Quantum Mechanics for Dummies) I know a few of the very basics, but not enough to discuss it intelligently. How does it account for matter appearing out of nothingness (or "quantum vaccuum")? What are the implications for the Big Bang? How does it affect us in everyday life?
Apologies if this has been covered here before, but I'm faced with trying to defend QM on some of the religion threads and not having sufficient firepower.
Thank you
I have a bachelor's degree in physics and as such, I took a little bit of quantum mechanics in college, however, I do not claim to know everything about it, but I think I know enough to answer your question. By the way, if I make any errors, I would appreciate a correction and thanks in advance.
To proceed, what happens is that at the microscopic level things like electrons have a great deal of energy in relation to their mass, which is why weird things can happen to them such as electron being ejected from the nucleus of an atom resulting in 'Beta' radiation.
For example:
If one took a single grain of sand out of a dump truck full of sand, then no one would notice the difference in weight.
If one took a single grain of sand out a dump truck that a child would play with, then no one would notice the change in weight.
If one took a single grain of sand out a dump truck that an ant would play with, then the ant would probably notice the change in weight.
If one took a single grain of sand out a dump truck that a micro-organism would play with, then that organism would notice since the sand grain would probably constitute the entire load.
Now then as you may know, the nucleus of an atom is made up of protons and neutrons so one would think that it is impossible for an individual electron to overcome the attractive forces generated by the opposite charges without some sort of external force being applied. However, in some cases it is possible because the positive charges form a barrier that is high, but not infinitely wide and the electron can 'tunnel' through the barrier since its charge in relation to its mass is so very high. In this case, the slight variation in the electro-negativity of the nucleus of the atom as one moves through the periodic table is why one can see such a vast variation in the half-life of beta decay (from milliseconds to millions of years).
This tunneling effect can also occur with objects on the macroscopic level, but it is far less likely since the energy to mass ratio is so much lower. To illustrate, there was a homework problem that I did which involved a population of electrons at a fairly modest energy state tunneling through a solid barrier that was as wide as the diameter of an electron, and it worked out that given those conditions from minus infinite time to positive infinite time, 95% of these electrons would tunnel through that barrier.
On the other hand, there was a population of bowling balls surrounded by a barrier 9 cm wide (about one-fourth of there diameter) at room temperature, and it worked out that 1 in 10^300 of the bowling balls would tunnel through the barrier given those conditions from minus infinite time to positive infinite time. By the way, there is not material in the entire universe to make 10^300 bowling balls!
Another important point is that quantum mechanics makes very accurate predictions for populations or systems, but not individual particles. Again, going back to Beta decay, one can use quantum mechanics to predict with great accuracy what the half-life will be, but one cannot single out one nuclei and say when it will decay.
As for how the universe came into existence, I do not know if anyone has ever really answered that. The latest term I have heard is 'Quantum Fluxation' whereby all of the matter/energy of the universe was condensed down in to an object that was smaller than an electron then all of sudden 'bang!', this object exploded and the universe we know came into being.
I hope this helps!
