Quantum Physics

Definition: Quantum Physics is a branch of science that deals with discrete, indivisible units of energy called quanta as described by the Quantum Theory. The five main ideas represented in Quantum Theory are: 1)energy is not continuous, but comes in small but discrete units, 2) elementary particles behave both like particles and like waves, 3) the movement of these particles is inherently random, 4) it is physically impossible to know both the position and the momentum of a particle at the same time. The more precisely one is known, the less precisely the measurement of the other is, and 5) the atomic world is nothing like the world we live in.  It describes the nature of the universe as being much different then the world we see. 

A more simplistic description of quantum mechanics is a set of theories described by mathematical equations, explaining and predicting events that occur at atomic and subatomic levels.  It helps us understand the properties of solids, atoms, nuclei, subnuclear particle, and light.  Yet the predictions from quantum theory are not analogous to how the world appears, since its conjectures include everything from parallel realities to objects being in two or more places at the same time.

Thus, it is realized that the entire universe is actually a series of probabilities.  Most of the observations made come down to 4 possibilities; 1) your consciousness affects the behavior of subatomic particles, 2) particles move backwards as well as forwards in time and appear in all possible places at once, 3) the universe is splitting, every Planck-time (10 E-43 seconds) into billions of parallel universes, and 4) the universe is interconnected with faster-than-light transfers of information.

What originated with Plank’s quanta in 1900 and the Einstein’s Theory of Relativity in 1905, has grown into a field of never-ending interpretations which compete with one other.  New interpretations are popping up every three months as we continue to expand our approach to the microscopic world of wonder.