What is quantum mechanics?

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By Adam Mann Contributions from Robert Coolman published March 05, 2022
Quantum mechanics is the branch of physics relating to the very small.

Abstract image of quantum probability. (Image credit: agsandrew via Shutterstock)
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How is it different?
When was it developed?
Wave-particle duality
Describing atoms
Schrödinger's cat
Quantum mechanics and general relativity
Bibliography
Quantum mechanics is a subfield of physics that describes the behaviour of particles — atoms, electrons, photons and almost everything in the molecular and submolecular realm.
Developed during the first half of the 20th century, the results of quantum mechanics are often extremely strange and counterintuitive.
HOW IS QUANTUM MECHANICS DIFFERENT FROM CLASSICAL PHYSICS?
At the scale of atoms and electrons, many of the equations of classical mechanics, which describe the movement and interactions of things at everyday sizes and speeds, cease to be useful
WHEN WAS QUANTUM MECHANICS DEVELOPED?
Quantum mechanics developed over many decades, beginning as a set of controversial mathematical explanations for experiments that the mathematics of classical mechanics could not explain, according to the University of St. Andrews in Scotland
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. It started at the turn of the 20th century, around the same time Albert Einstein published his theory of relativity, a separate revolution in physics that describes the motion of things at high speeds. Unlike relativity, however, the origins of quantum mechanics cannot be attributed to a single scientist. Rather, multiple scientists contributed to a foundation that gradually gained acceptance and experimental verification between the late 1800s and 1930.
In 1900, German physicist Max Planck was trying to explain why objects at specific temperatures, like the 1,470-degree-Fahrenheit (800 degrees Celsius) filament of a light bulb, glowed a specific colour — in this case, red, according to the Perimeter Institute
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. Planck realized that equations used by physicist Ludwig Boltzmann to describe the behaviour of gases could be translated into an explanation for this relationship between temperature and colour. The problem was that Boltzmann's work relied on the fact that any given gas was made from tiny particles, meaning that light, too, was made from discrete bits.
This idea flew in the face of ideas about light at the time, when most physicists believed that light was a continuous wave and not a tiny packet. Planck himself didn't believe in either atoms or discrete bits of light, but his concept was given a boost in 1905, when Einstein published a paper, "Concerning an Heuristic Point of View Toward the Emission and Transformation of Light.
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Einstein envisioned light travelling not as a wave, but as some manner of "energy quanta." This packet of energy, Einstein suggested in his paper, could "be absorbed or generated only as a whole," specifically when an atom "jumps" between quantized vibration rates. This is where the "quantum" part of quantum mechanics comes from.
With this new way to conceive of light, Einstein offered insights into the behaviour of nine phenomena in his paper, including the specific colours that Planck described as being emitted from a light bulb filament. It also explained how certain colours of light could eject electrons off metal surfaces — a phenomenon known as the photoelectric effect.
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