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Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory that describes the behavior of nature at and below the scale of atoms. [2]: 1.1 It is the foundation of all quantum physics, which includes quantum chemistry, quantum field theory, quantum technology, and quantum information science. Quantum mechanics can describe many systems that classical physics cannot.
A fundamental physical constant occurring in quantum mechanics is the Planck constant, h. A common abbreviation is ħ = h /2 π , also known as the reduced Planck constant or Dirac constant . Quantity (common name/s)
For quantum mechanics, this translates into the need to study the so-called classical limit of quantum mechanics. Also, as Bohr emphasized, human cognitive abilities and language are inextricably linked to the classical realm, and so classical descriptions are intuitively more accessible than quantum ones.
In the words of quantum physicist Richard Feynman, quantum mechanics deals with "nature as She is—absurd". [4] Features of quantum mechanics often defy simple explanations in everyday language. One example of this is the uncertainty principle: precise measurements of position cannot be combined with precise measurements of velocity.
In quantum mechanics, the expectation value is the probabilistic expected value of the result (measurement) of an experiment. It can be thought of as an average of all the possible outcomes of a measurement as weighted by their likelihood, and as such it is not the most probable value of a measurement; indeed the expectation value may have zero probability of occurring (e.g. measurements which ...
The path integral formulation is a description in quantum mechanics that generalizes the stationary action principle of classical mechanics.It replaces the classical notion of a single, unique classical trajectory for a system with a sum, or functional integral, over an infinity of quantum-mechanically possible trajectories to compute a quantum amplitude.
Quantum superposition is a fundamental principle of quantum mechanics that states that linear combinations of solutions to the Schrödinger equation are also solutions of the Schrödinger equation. This follows from the fact that the Schrödinger equation is a linear differential equation in time and position.
The old quantum theory is a collection of results from the years 1900–1925 [23] which predate modern quantum mechanics. The theory was never complete or self-consistent, but was rather a set of heuristic corrections to classical mechanics. [24] The theory is now understood as a semi-classical approximation [25] to modern quantum mechanics. [26]