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Physics LibreTexts

1: Introduction to Quantum Mechanics

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One normally makes a distinction between quantum mechanics and quantum physics. Quantum physics is concerned with those processes that involve discrete energies, and quanta (such as photons). Quantum Mechanics concerns the study of a specific part of quantum physics, those quantum phenomena described by Schrödinger’s equation.

Quantum physics plays a rôle on small (atomic and subatomic) scales (say length scales of the order of 1 0− 9 m) and below. You can see whether an expression has a quantum-physical origin as soon as it contains Planck’s constant in one of its two guises

h=6.6261034Js=h/2π=1.0551034Js.

Here we shall shortly review some of the standard examples for the break-down classical physics, which can be described by introducing quantum principles.


This page titled 1: Introduction to Quantum Mechanics is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Niels Walet via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.

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