Relativity and Quantum Mechanics Discussion

Isaac Newton

Time

Space

Matter

Light

Superconductors, Nuclear and Chemical Reactions cannot be explained using classical mechanics

Special Relativity

Special relativity is based on two postulates which are contradictory in classical mechanics:

The laws of physics are the same for all observers in uniform motion relative to one another (principle of relativity),

The speed of light in a vacuum is the same for all observers, regardless of their relative motion or of the motion of the source of the light.

Simultaneity

Train Paradox in More Detail

Two events, simultaneous for one observer, may not be simultaneous for another observer if the observers are in relative motion.

Speed

We cannot travel faster than the speed of light. At that point our mass essentially becomes energy. We would then exhibit wave-particle properties

Mass-Energy Equivalence

E=mc^2

Measurement

Objects are measured to be shortened in the direction that they are moving with respect to the observer.

Time

Moving clocks are measured to tick more slowly than an observer's "stationary" clock.

General Relativity

Theory of Gravitation

Clocks run more slowly in regions of lower gravitational potential. This is called gravitational time dilation.

Rays of light bend in the presence of a gravitational field.

Rotating masses "drag along" the spacetime around them; a phenomenon termed "frame-dragging".

The Universe is expanding, and the far parts of it are moving away from us faster than the speed of light.

Balloon Analogy

String theory

the wave–particle duality of energy and matter and the uncertainty principle provide a unified view of the behavior of photons, electrons and other atomic-scale objects.

Fundamentally, it attempts to explain the peculiar behaviour of matter and energy at the subatomic level—an attempt which has produced more accurate results than classical physics in predicting how individual particles behave.

Richard Feynman

Nobody really understands quantum theory

Scale Law

Objects are a particular size for a reason

Beached Whales die because they are crushed by their own weight

Human bones are proportional to distribute the weight

Quantum realm particles are bizzare because they are VERY small

Max Planck

some physical quantities can be changed only by discrete amounts, or quanta, as multiples of the Planck constant, rather than being capable of varying continuously or by any arbitrary amount

Spectral Analysis

Color Patterns

Black Body Radiation

Schrödinger

Wave Function

describes the probability amplitude of the position and momentum of a particle.

Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle

One cannot know both the position and momentum of a particle simultaneously

Schrodinger's Cat

A cat, along with a flask containing a poison and a radioactive source, is placed in a sealed box shielded against environmentally induced quantum decoherence. If an internal Geiger counter detects radiation, the flask is shattered, releasing the poison that kills the cat. The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics implies that after a while, the cat is simultaneously alive and dead. Yet, when we look in the box, we see the cat either alive or dead, not both alive and dead.

Modern Physics Induces Skepeticism

Double-Slit Difraction

the double-slit experiment demonstrates the inseparability of the wave and particle natures of light and other quantum particles

Photons are fired at a sheet with two slits in it

Once fired, they should produce two lines on the screen behind it, right?

Wrong. They produce a wave interference pattern

Observation?

When the experiment is observed/measured the particles act as classical physics would describe.

Copenhagen Interpretation

Observation can throw off experiments

When you look at something, the photon exchange from your eyes to the object can alter the results. We are talking SMALL here. VERY SMALL

quantum mechanics does not yield an objective description of microscopic reality but deals only with probabilities, and that measurement plays an ineradicable role

There is no quantum reality. We can only theorize on the observable, so quantum theory can never take into account the metaphysical. Only the observable reality

This is why we use probabilities

One theory says that this means the universe is indeterministic

The other theory presented by Einstein says that probabilities show our inability to describe quantum mechanics. But it is pointless to say that it does not exist alltogether. We study what we can describe and observe