ZapperZ

We periodically get questions on PF about people wanting to know of a tennis ball, a ping pong ball, a person, a cow, etc. can tunnel through a wall, or fall through the ground. This is due to an aspect or a consequence of quantum mechanics in which quantum particles have the probability of tunneling through a potential barrier and come out on the other side of it.

I responded to the latest thread on this topic. However, since it does some up very often, I wanted to keep a record...

I mentioned earlier on what I think are the most important things you can learn by being on Physics Forums. This time, I tackle the question on what I think is the most important thing I learned in becoming a physicist. I get asked that question frequently. Whenever I do an outreach project with either high school or college students, or even sometime even when I talk to the general public, I often get asked the question on what I think was the most important thing that I learned in becoming a scientist,...

It is a bit pompous of me think that I can actually tell you the most important thing you can learn from Physics Forums. After all, each one of us here have different reasons for being on this forum, and so, we will have different things that we consider to be important to us.

Still, I believe I can clearly describe what is the most important thing that an "average" PF member can learn while in this forum. While most people would think that I would say that the subject matter...

I posted this elsewhere (on my personal blog), and someone mentioned that maybe it might also be useful here on PF. So I'm reproducing the entire entry here in case it might make a difference. This is essentially a "sequel" to my earlier essay on "So I am Your Academic Advisor".

My aim in writing this piece is to try and impress upon the students in such a course of the fact that, even if they don't want to be in that class, there is a wealth of stuff they can...

{I have seen this type of question or scenario being presented on PF numerous times. So I'm going to repost something I wrote in my personal blog here, with extra info/additions at the end.}

One of the common misconception about the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle (HUP) is that it is the fault of our measurement accuracy. A descripton that is often used is the fact that to observe the position of an electron, for example, one needs a probe, such as a photon, with very short wavelength...