Quantum Mechanics

Max Born
Jake Black 1/13/2012

Max Born was born in Breslau on December 11, 1882, to his Jewish parents; Margarete and Gustav Born. He came from an upper/middle-class, unified, Jewish family. At first, he was considered too frail to attend public school, so he was tutored at home before being allowed to attend the Knig Wilhelm Gymnasium in Breslau. In 1906, Born was awarded the Prize of the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Gttingen for his work on the stability of elastic wires and tapes. He graduated from Gttingen year later on the basis of his work. In 1915, Born accepted to assist physicist Max Planck at the University of Berlin, World War I began during that time and he was drafted into the German army. In 1919 Born was appointed to a full professorship at the University of Frankfurt am Main, and in 1921 he accepted the position of professor of theoretical physics at the University of Gttingen. James Franck had been appointed professor of experimental physics at Gttingen the previous year. The two of them made the University of Gttingen one of the most important centres for the study of atomic and molecular phenomena. During 1925 and 1926 he published, with Heisenberg and Jordan, investigations on the principles of quantum mechanics, and soon after this he did experiments on the statistical interpretation of quantum mechanics. Quantum Mechanics got its start from a slit experiment by Thomas Young. When matter was sent through a barrier with a single slit a single line

appeared on a wall behind the barrier where the matter hit. The barrier was the replaced by a barrier with second slit. When matter was sent through; two lines of matter were made on the wall behind. Young then tried sending waves through. Waves act differently than moving matter. When waves are sent through an opening, it refracts around the opening. The wall behind would show a line where the highest frequency is. When the double slit was tested multiple lines on the back wall were shown. This proves that the barrier with two slits made two separate waves. The waves met they created high frequency areas and no frequency areas. When a high area and a low area met they cancelled out; creating a no frequency which is where a dark area is on the wall. With no proof of what electrons in atoms are, Young tested electrons in his double slit experiment. The single slit showed exactly what the matter did. When the double slit barrier inserted the most unexpected happened. The electrons acted as waves and showed multiple lines on the back wall. This meant that the electron was separating, going through both slits and interfering with itself. This caused much confusion, so physicist put a measuring device by a slit to prove their hypothesis. The electrons acted like matter and showed two identical lines on the back wall. The very act of observing changes how the electrons acted. This began quantum ideas. What

is matter? Is it waves? Waves of what? Why does an observer change the way matter reacts? Born's contribution to quantum physics, was to reinterpret de Broglie's wave equations for electrons as reports of probability. Changes in magnitude in the de Broglie equations, Born said, could be understood as changes in the probability of locating an electron in one or another location. The allegation was that one could never state specifically where an electron would be found at any one point in time, but one could find the probability of locating the electron at a given movement. Borns view of particles was rejected by many illustrious colleagues. Eventually, however, his explanations were confirmed, and it is as an innovator, of this new way of looking at particles that he is most given credit for. Born was the first to discover that quantum wave equations, squared, could be used to hypothesize the probability of where the particle would be found. Since it was impossible for both the waves and the particles to be real units, it became customary to regard the waves as unreal-probability-waves and to preserve the belief in the 'real' particle. Unfortunately, this maintained the belief in the particle/wave duality, in a new method where the 'quantum' scalar standing waves had become 'probability waves' for the 'real' particle. The most well-known or famous part of quantum mechanics is the uncertainty principle. In classical physics all matter can be described at a

given moment. All matter has definite mass, momentum, position, energy, ect. In Quantum physics, this is not true. This concept needs to be rejected. As far as we know an electron doesnt have a specific range of positions or a certain range of momenta. When light waves are shown upon an electron, an electron is so small its orbit and position is changed. An electron is also moving so incredibly fast it is less than a fraction of a second when you can see the electron. Therefor the more you know about an electrons position the less you know about the momentum. When you try to find the electrons momentum you cant find positions for the reason of what was stated earlier. You can find the orbit path around the nucleus, but cannot trace the electron. These facts prove that the more you know about an electrons momentum the less you know about the position. Each electron cannot be thought of as a little ball with a list of definite properties. They must be thought of as a function, or assortment of functions. This provides to each point of space and time a value, or multiple values. These values are never real numbers such as 69, -5.76, or 5/9. But in theory quite complex equations like -5.78+6/7i=xy^2, or 49x-2.94i=y-z^3. These quantities give rise to the wave nature of the electron. In conclusion to the finding s of modern science Youngs experiment was the beginning to all quantum theories. His double slit experiment showed electrons acted like waves, but when an observer was present

electrons acted differently. Borns most famous work was on replicating de Broglie's wave equation as well as to interpret and understand them. Born also found that using a wave equation, one could predict the probability of where a particle could be found. The uncertainty principle tells us that the more of the momentum that is known the less the position is and vice versa. Electrons donnot have definite properties and are represented by simple numbers, but ranges of properties and are represented by complex equations. Of all the research done one thing is certain; quantum physics is arguable the most interesting finding in science, since absolute zero and a Bose-Einstein condensate.

Bibliography Dr Quantum - Double Slit Experiment. ReptilianShapeshifte, 13 Sept. 2006. Web. 12 Jan. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfPeprQ7oGc>. Max Born-Biography. 2011. Web. 2012. <http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1954/bornbio.html>. Quantum Mechanics. Gary Felder, Kenny Felder, 1998. Web. 12 Jan. 2012. <http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/kenny/papers/quantu m.html>. Quantum Pysics. 7stones.com, 2009. Web. 12 Jan. 2012. <http://www.7stones.com/Homepage/Publisher/QM.html>. Quantum Theory: Max Born. Dr. Wolff, 1997. Web. 12 Jan. 2012. <http://www.spaceandmotion.com/qua-quotes.htmntum-theory-max-born>.