What is the difference between quantum mechanics and relativity

Why can't gravity be just a form of magnetic attraction? Nov 10, Does this seem correct? Related Stories. Listening to quantum radio Mar 08, Aug 09, Aug 17, A key piece to understanding how quantum gravity affects low-energy physics Aug 08, Sep 14, Jan 30, Recommended for you.

Study gathers evidence of topological superconductivity in the transition metal 4Hb-TaS2 8 hours ago. Laser light used to modulate free electrons into qubits Nov 10, Nov 09, Load comments 4. Let us know if there is a problem with our content. Your message to the editors. Your email only if you want to be contacted back. Send Feedback. Thank you for taking time to provide your feedback to the editors. E-mail the story Bridge between quantum mechanics and general relativity still possible.

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Introductory Quantum Physics and Relativity. Singapore: World Scientific, Print [4]Hobson, M. General Relativity: An Introduction for Physicists. Print [5]Zettili, Nouredine. Quantum Mechanics: Concepts and Applications. Quantum Mechanics: Fundamentals. Berlin, Germany: Springer, Print [7]Sachs, M. Print Articles on DifferenceBetween. User assumes all risk of use, damage, or injury. You agree that we have no liability for any damages.

What does Quantum Mechanics means? What is General Relativity? Quantum Mechanics vs. General Relativity Both the General Theory of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics are fundamentally very different theories with different formulations. Author Recent Posts. Sagar Khillar. This was unexpected because light was understood to act as a wave, meaning that values of color should be a continuous spectrum. What could be forbidding atoms from producing the colors between these whole-number multiples?

This seemed so strange that Planck regarded quantization as nothing more than a mathematical trick. According to Helge Kragh in his article in Physics World magazine, " Max Planck, the Reluctant Revolutionary ," "If a revolution occurred in physics in December , nobody seemed to notice it.

Planck was no exception …". Planck's equation also contained a number that would later become very important to future development of QM; today, it's known as "Planck's Constant. Quantization helped to explain other mysteries of physics. In , Einstein used Planck's hypothesis of quantization to explain why the temperature of a solid changed by different amounts if you put the same amount of heat into the material but changed the starting temperature.

Since the early s, the science of spectroscopy had shown that different elements emit and absorb specific colors of light called "spectral lines. In , Johannes Rydberg derived an equation that described the spectral lines emitted by hydrogen, though nobody could explain why the equation worked.

This changed in when Niels Bohr applied Planck's hypothesis of quantization to Ernest Rutherford's "planetary" model of the atom, which postulated that electrons orbited the nucleus the same way that planets orbit the sun.

According to Physics a site from the University of Colorado , Bohr proposed that electrons were restricted to "special" orbits around an atom's nucleus. They could "jump" between special orbits, and the energy produced by the jump caused specific colors of light, observed as spectral lines.

Though quantized properties were invented as but a mere mathematical trick, they explained so much that they became the founding principle of QM. In , Einstein published a paper, " Concerning an Heuristic Point of View Toward the Emission and Transformation of Light ," in which he envisioned light traveling not as a wave, but as some manner of "energy quanta.

This would also apply, as would be shown a few years later, when an electron "jumps" between quantized orbits. With this new way to envision light, Einstein offered insights into the behavior of nine different phenomena, including the specific colors that Planck described being emitted from a light-bulb filament. It also explained how certain colors of light could eject electrons off metal surfaces, a phenomenon known as the "photoelectric effect. In a paper, "The Photoelectric Effect: Rehabilitating the Story for the Physics Classroom," Klassen states that Einstein's energy quanta aren't necessary for explaining all of those nine phenomena.

Certain mathematical treatments of light as a wave are still capable of describing both the specific colors that Planck described being emitted from a light-bulb filament and the photoelectric effect.

Indeed, in Einstein's controversial winning of the Nobel Prize , the Nobel committee only acknowledged "his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect," which specifically did not rely on the notion of energy quanta. Roughly two decades after Einstein's paper, the term " photon " was popularized for describing energy quanta, thanks to the work of Arthur Compton, who showed that light scattered by an electron beam changed in color. This showed that particles of light photons were indeed colliding with particles of matter electrons , thus confirming Einstein's hypothesis.

By now, it was clear that light could behave both as a wave and a particle, placing light's "wave-particle duality" into the foundation of QM.

Since the discovery of the electron in , evidence that all matter existed in the form of particles was slowly building.