User:Johnjbarton/sandbox/introduction to quantum mechanics: Difference between revisions

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= Topic list =

* What is quantum mechanics?

** A curiously exotic set of phenomena.

** theoretical model of very very tiny things.

** Major part of how the universe works.

** strangely: all of the above.

* Why is quantum mechanics difficult to understand?

** Quantum world fundamentally different (intro).

*** Invisible, Heavily mathematical, Ubiquity, Different properties.

** IndirectInvisible information:leads to indirect observations.

*** Different properties.

*** ModelsIndirect predictinginformation: observations.

*** Ubiquity.

** Indirect information: observations.

*** Submicroscopic scale.

*** Macroscopic human senses.

*** Information through interaction.

*** Interaction causes alteration.:

**** Observations alter state.

**** Environment alters (decoherence).

** Indirect information leads to models leads to math.

** Models predicting observations.

*** Models predicting observations.

*** Analogies to directly observable systems.

*** Numerical observations require mathematical models.

** Limitations of non-mathematical descriptions.

*** Models difficult to explain without math background.

*** Limitations of mathematical description.

*** AnalogiesOnly analogies to directly observable systems.

**** Observers obey QM (Heisenberg cut)

*** Limitations of mathematical description.

**** Bad data to start (unmeasurable initial conditions)

**** Observers obey QM (Heisenberg cut)

* Curiously exotic phenomena and our models of very very tiny things.

(I especially like the last entry--there are so many descriptions of the randomness in the double-slit experiment that fail to mention that "coherent light" is quite noisy: each individual photon has its own path--direction and offset through the slits, and they are not well aligned with each other. No wonder physicists have been quick to say that QM itself is all random, when it is not. There is nothing random about the Schrödinger equation. [[User:David spector|David Spector]] ([[User Talk:David spector|talk]]) 17:43, 18 July 2023 (UTC))

** Photo electric effect: quanta.

** Photoabsorption: bound states and quantum jumps

** Double slit: interference and matter waves.

** Single slit: interference and yes waves.

** Double slit low intensity: probability.

** Radioactive decay: probability.

** Stern-gerlach: spin

** separate measurements in coincidence: entanglement.

* A major part of how the universe works.

*** Ubiquity.

** Quantum apparatus; quantum observers.

** Welcome to the edge of the known universe.