Quantum Mechanics

Whenever I read through the theory of quantum mechanics I am reminded of a priest trying to explain the existence of God. They go through greats lengths to obfuscate and confuse, thinking to themselves that they if they can't be complete and thorough, at least they can make it sound like they are attempting to cover all possible weaknesses in their arguments. What I will try to do here is to first explain what problem quantum mechanics was developed to solve, and from this, what answers quantum mechanics provides that cannot be provided using another theory.

Questions that I would like answered:

1. Why is energy absorption quantified?
2. Why is electromagnetic energy quantified?
3. Why are there electron and nuclear orbitals rather than a random distribution of particles?

Mathematics is a useful tool that approximates reality. The key word is 'approximates'. Reality is always more complicated than math can handle. Any real world system under study always has too many factors involved to draw any absolute conclusions, so the observer has to ignore a bunch of the factors, claiming that their contribution is too small to worry about. This is a common theme in all science, unfortunate but necessary if any useful conclusions are to be made.

States

To get quantum mechanics one has to have a good understanding of the idea of states and there is no better way to understand something than to see it in action. So here is a two-state system that can be constructed easily. A video showing it in action will be posted soon:

Materials:

• 4 bar magnets
• 1 swivel
• 1 container to hold 2 of the magnets
• Calipers

Construction:

1. Divide three of the magnets into two groups by aligning two of them north-south, so now there is one magnet with north AND south on each end.
2. Place the pair into an oval container so the magnets are constrained but able to twist freely with the container.
3. Bind the container and third magnet together by attaching a swivel in the center. Allowing free rotation around the long axis.
4. fix the third magnet to a surface.

Two states in action: At equilibrium the container will always line up long end with the fixed magnet. It can be rotated with energy input, but as soon as you let go, it goes back to long-way alignment again. Thus there are two states, and only two states, both equivalent in that the container can twist 180 degrees to align the other direction, but there is no equilibrated half-way state. Any attempt to rotate requires energy, but no change in state happens unless the correct amount is added to cause a complete half-rotation.

The energy needed to change state is thus just enough to rotate the container barely past 90 degrees. The field will then push it (or pull it, depending on your point-of-view) to align the other direction.

Discussion:

There is no continuum of states here, where energy is added a little at a time until the 'lowest energy' state is achieved. Instead there are just two states. The amount of energy needed to rotate a container to 90 degrees can be called a quantum. Any energy less than the quantum does not cause a change in state. If more than the quantum is added, the amount of excess determines if there is another change in state or if the system just absorbs and re-emits it without changing.

Two non-equivalent states:

1. Place the 4th bar magnet near the two-state system, below one end of the fixed magnet, but not close enough to cause them to repel each other.

Discussion:

This is now a two-state system where one of the states is lower in energy than the other because the magnetic strength at one end of the system is different.