Measuring energy and then momentum

Hypersquare
Messages
14
Reaction score
0
Hi there,

Im confused by something that came up in my quantum mechanics lecture. The lecturer posed us a question. What result do I get for a measurement of momentum if I have already measured the energy.

I assumed after measuring energy that the system would be left in an energy eigenfunction. So I tried to do the momentum operator on this eigenfunction (the one with sin in) and I have something that looks like:

[i \hbarCos(n \pi x/\sqrt{a})]/a

Is that correct? If so how do I extract the eigenvalues from it?

Thanks
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Eigenfunction where?
Your momentum measurement might depend on the position, if your potential is variable. A pure momentum measurement would not give a single, predictable value, but you could integrate over your whole wave function to get an expectation value.
 
Sorry I meant in the well, where the potential is zero.
 
Insights auto threads is broken atm, so I'm manually creating these for new Insight articles. Towards the end of the first lecture for the Qiskit Global Summer School 2025, Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Olivia Lanes (Global Lead, Content and Education IBM) stated... Source: https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/quantum-entanglement-is-a-kinematic-fact-not-a-dynamical-effect/ by @RUTA
If we release an electron around a positively charged sphere, the initial state of electron is a linear combination of Hydrogen-like states. According to quantum mechanics, evolution of time would not change this initial state because the potential is time independent. However, classically we expect the electron to collide with the sphere. So, it seems that the quantum and classics predict different behaviours!
Back
Top