Back on the topic of quantum mechanics theory real quick - let's review. Remember back when I talked about what the Schrodinger equation meant? That it had to do with the kinetic energy plus the potential energy, and the choice of potential energy is what moves the particle forward in time? Yeah, well, no one ever said quantum mechanics was easy...
Anyway, I'm going to discuss the most boring potential - none. That is, what happens to a particle is I just put it down free from the influence of other forces? Let's consider the classical picture first. Say you go out to the middle of space, far from the solar system, and far from the influence of anything. You set down a marble. What does it do? It sits there. You turn your back for a few minutes and turn back, oh, it's still there! This isn't a surprise, it's what we see every day.
So what's different about quantum mechanics? Take a look for yourself!
Recall that if the probability density is very narrow (sharply peaked), the particle is most likely at that position, but as the probability density spreads out, the probability for the particle to be observed somewhere way off to the left is nearly as high as the probability of it being in the center.
What can we gather from this? Well, remember in one of my first posts that says if I drop a ball, I'm not necessarily going to find it at my feet? Well, this is exactly that problem! I put a particle at a very specific spot, but if I check back later, it's not necessarily going to be at that spot!
Wavepacket spreading :)
ReplyDeleteIndeed. Since I had the exact solution, no pesky numerics on this one!
ReplyDeleteRSS feed request to Before It's News
ReplyDeleteHi Dan,
My name is Ben Chasteen and I'm the Science editor at Before It's News www.beforeitsnews.com. Our site is a People Powered news platform with over 2,500,000 visits a month and growing fast.
We would be honored if we could republish your blog RSS feed in our Science category. Our readers need to read what your Quantum Curious blog has to say.
Syndicating to Before It's News is a terrific way spread the word and grow your audience. Many other organizations are using Before It's News to do just that. We can have your feed up and running in 24 hours. I just need you to reply with your permission to do so. Please include the full name and email of the person who will be attached to the account, and let me know the name you want on the account (most people have their name or their blog name).
You can also have any text and/or links you wish appended to the end or prepended to the beginning of each of your posts on Before It's News. Just email me the text and links that you want at the beginning and/or ending of each post. If you know html you can send me that. If not, just send me the text and a link to your site. It should be around 200 characters or less (not including links).
You can, if you like, create a custom feed for Before It's News that includes multiple links back to your blog or web site. We only require that RSS feeds include full stories, not partial stories. We don't censor or edit work.
Thank you,
Ben Chasteen
Editor, Before It's News
ben@beforeitsnews.com
www.beforeitsnews.com
That would be fine, you may include this RSS feed.
ReplyDelete