- #1
DiracPool
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I have made a focused effort over the past couple years to understand this "miracle" of quantum mechanics that has changed the civilization we live in, and frankly, I'm getting a bit frustrated that I am not privy to, as most popular TV physicists seem to purport, the obviousness of the translation of its mathematics to the wonders of modern technology.
What I mean is that I'm not doubting it, I use the technology that quantum theory has putatively produced everyday just like everyone else. However, I am having trouble understanding how solving the SE equation for a "particle in a box," or an "infinite square well," or the “energy states of the hydrogen atom,” or the “probability of finding a particle in a certain location,” translate to this wonderful world of color TV, cell phones, time travel, black holes and quantum teleportation.
Maybe its obvious to everyone else, but not me. All I get to enjoy is complex conjugates, second derivatives, Dirac notation, phasors, Hamiltonians, and a bevy of other mathematical and notational jungles. Which I’m happy to navigate, but I’d like some kind of a middle ground understanding of how knowing the probability of finding a particle in a certain location “in a box” or even in some arbitrary spatial context is useful. Yeah, I know about the energy levels and the energy bands in their relation to semiconductors, but what about the rest? Why is everything I read and study on the subject so myopic in its scope of a greater practical relevance? It is getting very discouraging. Any comments and/or links would be appreciated.
What I mean is that I'm not doubting it, I use the technology that quantum theory has putatively produced everyday just like everyone else. However, I am having trouble understanding how solving the SE equation for a "particle in a box," or an "infinite square well," or the “energy states of the hydrogen atom,” or the “probability of finding a particle in a certain location,” translate to this wonderful world of color TV, cell phones, time travel, black holes and quantum teleportation.
Maybe its obvious to everyone else, but not me. All I get to enjoy is complex conjugates, second derivatives, Dirac notation, phasors, Hamiltonians, and a bevy of other mathematical and notational jungles. Which I’m happy to navigate, but I’d like some kind of a middle ground understanding of how knowing the probability of finding a particle in a certain location “in a box” or even in some arbitrary spatial context is useful. Yeah, I know about the energy levels and the energy bands in their relation to semiconductors, but what about the rest? Why is everything I read and study on the subject so myopic in its scope of a greater practical relevance? It is getting very discouraging. Any comments and/or links would be appreciated.