Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The Sommerfeld model predicted that the magnetic moment of an atom measured along an axis will only take on discrete values, a result which seems to contradict rotational invariance but which was confirmed by the Stern–Gerlach experiment. This was a significant step in the development of quantum mechanics.
A graphic representation of Wheeler's calculations of what quantum reality may look like at the Planck length. Quantum foam (or spacetime foam, or spacetime bubble) is a theoretical quantum fluctuation of spacetime on very small scales due to quantum mechanics. The theory predicts that at this small scale, particles of matter and antimatter are ...
The Planck constant, or Planck's constant, denoted by , [1] is a fundamental physical constant [1] of foundational importance in quantum mechanics: a photon's energy is equal to its frequency multiplied by the Planck constant, and the wavelength of a matter wave equals the Planck constant divided by the associated particle momentum.
Each theory of quantum gravity uses the term "quantum geometry" in a slightly different fashion. String theory, a leading candidate for a quantum theory of gravity, uses it to describe exotic phenomena such as T-duality and other geometric dualities, mirror symmetry, topology-changing transitions [clarification needed], minimal possible distance scale, and other effects that challenge intuition.
1 Planck length: 0.0000162 qm Planck length; typical scale of hypothetical loop quantum gravity or size of a hypothetical string and of branes; according to string theory, lengths smaller than this do not make any physical sense. [1] Quantum foam is thought to exist at this scale. 10 −24: 1 yoctometer 142 ym
Superstring theory resolves this issue, replacing the classical idea of point particles with strings. These strings have an average diameter of the Planck length, with extremely small variances, which completely ignores the quantum mechanical predictions of Planck-scale length dimensional warping. Also, these surfaces can be mapped as branes.
Planck's radiation equation contained a residual energy factor, one hν / 2 , as an additional term dependent on the frequency ν, which was greater than zero (where h is the Planck constant). It is therefore widely agreed that "Planck's equation marked the birth of the concept of zero-point energy."
However, according to the best currently accepted theory in physics, the Standard Model, there is a distance (called the Planck length, 1.616229(38)×10 −35 metres, named after one of the fathers of Quantum Theory, Max Planck) and therefore a time interval (the amount of time which light takes to traverse that distance in a vacuum, 5.39116(13 ...