Viruses and Quantum Mechanical Spreading

  • Context: Graduate 
  • Thread starter Thread starter Domnu
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Mechanical Quantum
Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
1 reply · 2K views
Domnu
Messages
176
Reaction score
0
I was just wondering if viruses experenced quantum mechanical spreading... if we represent a virus by a wave packet, we have that (assuming that the density of a virus is, say, 300 kg/m^3)...

[tex]a = 10 nm, m = \pi * a^3 * 300 = 9.43 \cdot 10^{-22} kg[/tex]

Now, after a period of time, [tex]\tau[/tex] where

[tex]\tau = 2ma^2/ \hbar[/tex]

, a wave packet experiences significant quantum mechanical spreading. But here, [tex]\tau = 0.001787 s[/tex]! What exactly does this mean? Does this mean we have major difficulties locating viruses at a particular time and place (we can see them through electron microscopes...)? What exactly does quantum mechanical spreading refer to?
 
Physics news on Phys.org