QUANTUM MECHANICS
Course description
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Mechanics is the branch of physics that studies the physical laws of bodies such as there position, motion, types and causes of motion. Classical mechanics developed by Isaac Newton, Galileo Galilei, Lagrange, Hamilton and so on, describes these laws in a very continious and plausible manner, however, problems begin to arise as the body(particle) being studied becomes too small.The laws of classical mechanics reach their limit and fail to describe the physics of the small. A famous example is the double slit experiment, where the electron is seen to potray wave-like properties, instead of the classical understanding - as a particle.
Quantum mechanics is unique to classical mechanics in that it usually takes a descrete approach to phenomena, rather than the classical continious understanding. For example, an atom in an exited state will only emit a descrete amount of energy called a photon - not more, not less, in order to move to a state of lower energy. It is from this descrete understanding of certain phenomena that the term ''quanta'' or "quantus" arises from Latin, meaning 'how little' and thus, quantum mechanics.
In this course, students will be introduced to the mathematical formulations of physical phenomena pioneered by physicists like Max Plank, Neils Bohr, De Broglie, Eientein, Shrodinger and many more.
The course in quantum mechanics takes a very theoretical approach with the use of a lot of mathematics. Therefore, students at this stage are required to be very fluent in math.