Quantum Mechanics

[EthanPham_1G]

Hi everyone,
In today's lecture, what did Professor Lavelle mean by the word "discrete". More specifically, he mentioned that the smallest transferable unit is one discrete H2O molecule.
Thank you!

[DarrenKim_1H]

The smallest possible unit of measure for water flowing out of a cup is one molecule of H20. When we think of liquid coming out of a cup, we tend to visualize it as consistently flowing out. Instead of this way, try to think of water coming out of a cup as a bunch of really really small lego pieces, until the last "discrete" lego piece comes out. That is the H20 molecule

[EthanPham_1G]

Thanks for answering!
I have another question. What does the variable "n" mean and how does it relate to the energy of an electron?

[JasonKwon_3k]

n refers to the energy level that an electron can exist in.

[Daria Azizad 1K]

In terms of quantum mechanics, n represents the energy level that an electron occupies. Thinking about energy levels as lanes on a freeway might help: you can drive in the first, second, etc. lane, but you cannot drive in the 2.5 lane. Since these energy levels only exist as specific whole numbers, they are discrete. If this was a continuous scenario, you could drive anywhere on the freeway (3.2228 lane, 1.05 lane).

[ShastaB4C]

Can someone please clarify what are quanta?

[ShastaB4C]

Is there a difference between quanta and photons?

[nickianel_4b]

Is there a difference between quanta and photons?

Quanta are the smallest unit of a quantity, so photons are a type of quanta. One photon is one quantum of electromagnetic energy. Hope that helped!!

[Amanda Mei 1B]

Can someone please clarify what are quanta?

Chem_Mod's answer from an older post: "Quanta are described as discrete packets of energy because it requires a certain amount of energy (not just any amount of energy that is continuous) to excite electrons from one state to another (say in a H atom). Same thing goes for energy that is released by an atom when an electron goes from a higher energy state to a lower energy state--it yields a certain discrete value of energy."

[Jordan Ziegler 2J]

It looks like we're all asking questions based on the first quantum mechanics lecture, so I think this belongs here.

Professor Lavelle was talking about how electric energy oscillates up and down, and magnetic oscillates orthogonal to that. Do the two components interact in any way? I've never learned about "magnetic waves" and I was wondering if someone could elaborate :)