#5
Both the exact speed and position of an electron cannot be measured exactly at the same time.
Explanation:
Any attempt to measure the velocity of an electron will knock it around, unpredictably. This comes from the principle of wave-particle duality. Every particle has a wave associated with it, especially electrons, and while each particle is a particle it acts like a wave. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, "The more intense the undulations of the associated wave become, however, the more ill-defined becomes the wavelength, which in turn determines the momentum of the particle." This, while complicated, tells us that the randomness of the position determines its speed, and attempting to measure this will make it change speed. The same will happen vice versa.
#6
Go ahead and use any of the underlined applications that I describe below :). You can also use the stuff I got from my Smithsonian book to impress your teacher, which is where I got all of my descriptions
Explanation:
The earliest discussion of Quantum Theory was done by as renowned German physicist named Mark Planck. The theory itself was little more than a quantum trick during his time, used to explain the "black body radiation curve." While irrelevant to our purposes, it gave Planck the inspiration to create a new model for this theory. he suggested that the energy released by a black body came from specific oscillations by the individual atoms. This matters only for the next step of quantum theory.
Einstein, in one of his renowned papers, set out to solve the photoelectric effect. The current electric current was not dependent on the intensity of light so much as the wavelength, which was weird because that meant adding more light wouldn't necessarily increase the wavelength (i.e. a red light with a thousand lumens wouldn't cause a current, yet an ultraviolet light at ten lumens would. Weird, huh?). Einstein's solution was to build on Planck's theory, suggesting that light itself was "quantized" - broken into packets of energy (called "quanta"). We call these quanta "photons" today. Without the right wavelength of light hitting the black body, no charge would be emitted. With ultraviolet and higher wavelengths, charge would be emitted.
This took a while to have any actual application, the first person realizing the gravity of this theory being Neils Bohr. He realized that this means that light exhibits both the properties of a particle and a wave, having huge implications for physics as a whole.
This influenced the Pauli Exclusion Principle, which states that two fermions (teeny tiny particles) can have the same quantum wavelength. He said that it was impossible for two particles to occupy the same quantum state at the same time which leads us to the principle of superposition.
Superposition relies on the idea that while two particles that are in quantum entanglement (if you want me to explain this, just comment and I will), while the state of the particles isn't being measured, the two particles can be in either of two states. However, once the particles are measured, they take a position. This can also be done with one particle, being pushed into superposition.
This is the entire premise of quantum computing. A quantum transistor is pushed into superposition, and then is measured when needed. This is several million times faster than traditional transistors, because you can fit trillions more of them onto a CPU (mainly because they're each subatomic particles) and also each of them can be in both the on and off states at the same time.
Another application, although a really weird one.
Quantum tunneling is an odd phenomenon where a particle uses the uncertainty principle (Remember that?) to "borrow" energy from it's surroundings to get past a barrier that it normally wouldn't be able to (I can explain how this works if you want me to). This plays a HUGE role in several essential physical phenomena such as the fusion in main sequence stars such as the sun, according to the Smithsonian institute (my big Smithsonian book xD), and could potentially be harnessed for easier nuclear fusion.
If you need any more anything science, you can talk to me because 1. I learn science for fun and 2. I have As in AP Chem and Bio online, and AP Physics in person (well it would be if not for corona)
Hope this answers your questions! :D
