New age writers like to throw around the buzzwords, "quantum mechanics", to support their ideas. The problem is, they usually don't give an accurate presentation of the science and they fail to show all sides of the argument. They only present the side which may favor their agenda.
Quantum mechanics:
In 1905 Albert Einstein wrote his Nobel prize winning paper on the photoelectric effect. This is the process by which electrons are ejected from a conductor by an incident photon. Basically, light strikes metal, metal ejects electron. This is the main mechanism of action of solar cells.
Einstein discovered that there was a threshold energy needed to get electrons flowing off a metal, which changed from metal to metal. The energy of a photon is proportional to its frequency, higher frequency means higher energy. He concluded that light was composed of quanta or packets of fixed energy, and hence, the photon was born.
The science of quantum mechanics was developed over several decades with the help of greats like Erwin Schrodinger, Louis de Broglie, and Werner Heisenberg. Though Einstein played a part in the foundations of quantum mechanics, he rejected the later ideas outright, and spent his old age trying to overturn the theory. He was famously quoted as saying, "God does not play with dice.", referring to the inherit probabilities in quantum mechanics or QM.
The most famous and useful relationships in QM are: the schrodinger equation, the de Broglie wavelength, and the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Likes take a quick look at each of these.
The schrodinger equation is a second-order differential equation that accurately predicts the wave form of a particle in a given potential. It is very difficult to solve. (The mathematics has not yet been invented to solve all differential equations) If anyone is curious what a differential equation is, just ask. There are only something like 11 solutions to the schrodinger equation, meaning we only know the waveforms exactly of about 11 quantum mechanical situations. There are very accurate methods for approximating other waveforms. With the schrodinger equation, you can find how the particle is "spread out" over space, or the probability of finding a particle in a given position at a given time. The fact that particles are spread out gives rise to something called "tunneling". This is where a particle can travel through a barrier that it shouldn't be able to considering energy alone.
The de Broglie wavelength also deals with the spatial extent of a particle. It gives the wavelength of a particle for a given momentum (mass and velocity). You have a de broglie wavelength. I have a de Broglie wavelength. The reason we don't experience quantum mechanical effects is that are de Broglie wavelength is so very tiny. We are not spread out over much space. This is because our mass is very large and our velocity very small, considered to fundamental particles.
The heisenberg uncertainty principle basically states that the more accurately you know the position of a particle, the less you can know about its velocity.
What's up with the particle/wave relationship? It seems things operate as waves when they are not being measured and particles when they are being measured. Why? There are several competing explanations. Einstein favored that we just don't know how particles work yet. We use probability waves to compensate for our lack of understanding about the way fundamental particles move about.
Planck was a consciousness guy. He felt that it was consciousness which was rendering reality around us, changing waveforms into particles.
The most accepted explanation is that physical process of measuring disturbs the particles waveform into a precise location. The interaction between the observing photons and the wave collapses the probability.
Those are pretty much the basics.
Peace.
Replies
Thanks for sorting some of that out! You could understand why people harbor the ideas they do around here when you consider Planck's work . . . I can understand your being frustrated when people that haven't spent as much time in your field tack a whole other language onto the process, but you also have to take into consideration a lot of these people have come into contact with beings that most likely possess advanced knowledge of this stuff . . . Life experience has taught me to not be too quick in writing off their experience as delusional . . . I mean, how could I know what it's like to be a three-year-old boy dying of ecoli or Helen Keller?
Still, guy, I'm wicked glad you posted this because I love this stuff!
Good stuff.
Since you are the new Einstein here Celestino, maybe you can help me with the below question?
I am wondering; we human beings radiate light, would it be possible to measure this light with a solar device?
I am seriously planning to construct me a device where I can measure our very own light with, and your advice would be more than appreciated.
:)
Much Love to you
Hi,
Anything with a finite temperature radiates light, you included. I bet your temperature is about 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. The higher the temperature, the higher the energy and thus, frequency, of the light emitted. Human beings radiate primarily in the infrared zone. There exists many devices you can use to measure or see the light your body emits, infrared goggles being one of them. These are used in the military to see enemy soldiers in the darkness.
Have a good day.
heheh...
.. well I mean actually to measure the light from our lightbodies. Not the heat radiated from our bodies. ;)
Anyway, thank you for your answer.
Well, I have, but cannot prove it without device. ;)
Lightbodies are clearly visible through solid walls.
DeRo7 posted once some video's here at ACC how to activate and view it, from thereon I discovered this.
Edits: "Likes take a quick look at each of these" ----> "Let's take a quick..."
"quantum mechanical effects is that are de Broglie wavelength" ---> "quantum mechanical effects is that our de Broglie..."
Sorry, it's early. Haven't had my coffee yet.