10 Amazing Real World Applications of the Quantum Theory Essay Example
For thousands of years, humans relied on their intuition to understand how the world works. Sure, the approach may have led to a few mistakes along the way -- it turns out the Earth isn't flat, for instance -- but ultimately it worked fairly well. Slowly but surely, humanity gained an understanding of everything from the laws of motion to thermodynamics, and all of it made intuitive sense.
And then quantum mechanics came, the absolutely baffling branch of physics exploring the very smallest types of matter. The study of quantum mechanics led to some truly astounding conclusions. For instance, scientists found that electrons behave both as waves and as particles, and the mere act of observing them changes the way they behave. Revelations like this one simply defied logic, prompting Einstein to declare "the more success the quantum theory has, the sillier it looks."
Einstein's sentiments still resonate today, more than a century after humanity's first insights into the quantum world; quantum mechanics makes perfect sense mathematically but defies our intuition at every turn. So it might surprise you that, despite its strangeness, quantum mechanics has led to some revolutionary inventions over the past century and promises to lead to many more in the years to come. Read on to learn about 10 practical applications of quantum mechanics. When you start going subatomic or even smaller, things get strange. That strangeness, however, can lead to some pretty cool inventions.
10. The Transistor
In the fall of 1945, the U.S. Army completed its work on ENIAC, the world's first vacuum-tube computer. All told, ENIAC weighed more than 30 tons (27 metric tons), had the footprint of a small house and cost nearly half a million dollars to create. Fortunately, by the time ENIAC was built, Bell Laboratories was already well on its way to developing a replacement for power-hungry, space-consuming vacuum tubes: the transistor. Transistors act as both an amplifier
And then quantum mechanics came, the absolutely baffling branch of physics exploring the very smallest types of matter. The study of quantum mechanics led to some truly astounding conclusions. For instance, scientists found that electrons behave both as waves and as particles, and the mere act of observing them changes the way they behave. Revelations like this one simply defied logic, prompting Einstein to declare "the more success the quantum theory has, the sillier it looks."
Einstein's sentiments still resonate today, more than a century after humanity's first insights into the quantum world; quantum mechanics makes perfect sense mathematically but defies our intuition at every turn. So it might surprise you that, despite its strangeness, quantum mechanics has led to some revolutionary inventions over the past century and promises to lead to many more in the years to come. Read on to learn about 10 practical applications of quantum mechanics. When you start going subatomic or even smaller, things get strange. That strangeness, however, can lead to some pretty cool inventions.
10. The Transistor
In the fall of 1945, the U.S. Army completed its work on ENIAC, the world's first vacuum-tube computer. All told, ENIAC weighed more than 30 tons (27 metric tons), had the footprint of a small house and cost nearly half a million dollars to create. Fortunately, by the time ENIAC was built, Bell Laboratories was already well on its way to developing a replacement for power-hungry, space-consuming vacuum tubes: the transistor. Transistors act as both an amplifier