IT'S A SMALL WORLD
photon JANUARY 2022 ∙ ISSUE 5
THE ORIGIN OF QUANTUM THEORY MAX PLANCK THE ART OF QUANTUM PHYSICS KILLING MOORE'S LAW QUANTUM CONSCIOUSNESS
MAX PLANCK
WHEN YOU CHANGE THE WAY YOU LOOK AT THINGS, THE THINGS YOU LOOK AT CHANGE.
PAGE 1
co
THE ORIGIN OF QUANTUM THEORY
... SEEM TO CARE SO MUCH ABOUT
FUN FACTS: MAX PLANCK EDITION
MAX PLANCK
PAGE 5
PAGE 6
PAGE 7
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
en IT'S A SMALL WORLD
PAGE 17
QUANTUM QUIZ
PAGE 25
JAMES WEBB TELESCOPE
PAGE 11
QUANTUM CONSCIOUSN ESS PAGE 18
"NEWTON FORGIVE ME"
PAGE 26
PAGE 2
FUN FACTS
PAGE 12
ts QUANTUM SENSORS AND DEMENTIA PAGE 28
THAT BIG RING THAT PHYSICISTS ... PAGE 5
nt THE ART OF QUANTUM PHYSICS PAGE 14
KILLING MOORE'S LAW PAGE 22
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST PAGE 29
LETTER FROM THE
EDITORS
Hello readers!
Welcome to the first issue of 2022 – a new year with new beginnings. If there’s one thing the past two years has taught us, it’s that it really is a small world. With everything moving online, our connections to people and ideas from around the world are simply surging. But what people don’t realise is that physics is often at the core of this expansion. Satellites – they’re only possible because of astrophysics. Hardware in laptops – only due to our understanding of electricity and semiconductors. Communication networks – only due to electromagnetic radiation. And now, with quantum information and quantum computing, we seem to be on the verge of revolutionising communication completely.
We invite you to read on to explore the small world we live in, and the smaller worlds that we can scarcely begin to fathom. The Editorial, Siddhant & Shrishti
Photon page 1
For this issue, we wanted to take this idea of a “small world” literally, examining the very foundations and building blocks of our universe. By diving into this issue, you’ll be diving into the world of atoms, subatomic particles, and “quantum” everything. Some of our concepts can get a little confusing, but don’t worry about it. To quote Richard Feynman, “If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don't understand quantum mechanics”. But you can always try.
THE ORIGIN OF QUANTUM THEORY Krisha
Kothari
Photon page 2
What is the origin of quantum theory? It all started with a simple light bulb. The German Bureau of Standards asked Max Planck in the early 1890s how to make light bulbs more efficient so that they could provide the most light with the least amount of electricity. Planck's initial objective was to forecast how much light a heated filament would emit. He was aware that light is made up of electromagnetic waves, with various hues of light being transported by waves of various frequencies. The challenge was to guarantee that visible waves emitted as much visible light as possible rather than ultraviolet or infrared. He sought to figure out how much a heated item emitted from each hue of light, but testing contradicted his predictions based on electromagnetic theory. Instead, he tossed the previous theory out the window and worked backwards from experimental observations in what he subsequently called an "act of despair". The data revealed a new physics rule: light waves only transport energy in packets known as “quanta”, with high frequency light consisting of big packets and low frequency light consisting of small packets.
The distinction between light waves and ants is that there aren't an endless number of ants in a room. However, because
Photon page 3
The concept that light arrives in quanta may appear absurd at first, but Albert Einstein quickly connected it to a far more common problem: sharing. Give an ant a piece of candy if you want to make it happy! You'll only be able to cheer them up half as much if there are two of them and you only have one piece. And if there are four, eight, or sixteen hundred thousand of them, forcing them to split one piece of candy isn't going to make them very happy. In reality, if you have an unlimited number of ants but not an endless number of pieces of candy, if you evenly distribute the pieces, each ant will only receive an infinitesimally little crumb, and none of them will be cheered up. Even so, they'll consume all of your sweets.
light waves come in a variety of sizes, you may have arbitrarily small light waves and may squeeze an endless number of them into a room. The light waves would then absorb all of your energy. In fact, all of these tiny waves together would have a limitless ability to absorb energy, sucking all of the heat from whatever you put in the room, with the ability to quickly freeze the tea in your cup, the sun, or even a supernova. Fortunately, the cosmos does not operate in this manner. Because, as Planck predicted, energy can only be carried away in large packets by small, high frequency waves. They're like picky ants who will only eat exactly 37 pieces of candy, or 186,200 pieces – no more and no fewer. The finicky high frequency waves lose out because they're so picky, and the majority of the energy is taken away in lower-frequency packets that are willing to share. The common, average energy carried by the packets is what we refer to as "temperature." As a result, a greater temperature simply indicates a larger average energy, and consequently a higher frequency of light emitted, according to Planck's law. That's why, when something heats up, it glows infrared first (which we can’t see with our eyes), then red, yellow, and white; then blue, violet, and ultraviolet (again invisible to us)... and so forth. According to Planck's quantum theory of “fussy light”, light bulb filaments should be heated at around 3200 Kelvin to guarantee that the majority of the energy is released as visible waves; any hotter, and we'd start tanning from the ultraviolet light.
Photon page 4
Quantum physics has been staring us in the face long before light bulbs and tanning beds: humans have been lighting fires for millennia, and the hue of the flames has always spelled out "quantum." Bibliography: https://www.britannica.com/video/185533/MaxPlanck-origin-quantum-theory
That big ring physicists seem to care so much about – Varun Satish
For those that haven’t figured it out yet, this is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) I’m talking about. Built by CERN, the LHC is the largest particle accelerator in the world. For now. To understand what this truly means, we need to understand two things. One, what a particle accelerator is. And two, what a hadron is. A particle accelerator is exactly as its name suggests.It takes particles and accelerates them to extremely high speeds. A hadron is a class of particles as defined in the Standard Model of
Particles, a sort of periodic table for particles. So, in essence, the LHC takes two or more hadrons and accelerates them to high speeds, only to collide them together. This splits the hadrons into their constituent sub-atomic particles, giving us a clearer insight into the structure and physics of matter and everything around us. The LHC has been the site of many important discoveries. From the Higgs Boson (which is a complicated topic on its own) to the many, many particles it has discovered, it is probably the most important tool we have in the field of particle physics. It’s likely that you would have heard the name of this humongous ring at least once, in its many pop-culture references. Iconic in its own way, the LHC is not going to leave anytime soon, at least not without contributing to so much more.
Photon page 5
Buried meters below the FranceSwitzerland border is a 27kilometer ring. Except it’s not just any ring. This is the ring that gave us clarity on string theory and supersymmetry. And don’t worry, those are just as confusing as they sound.
FUN
facts
ABOUT MAX PLANCK
Planck was a gifted musician who played the piano, organ and cello. He composed songs and operas.
Neil Bohr used Planck’s theory to introduce the quantum model of the atom. Planck received his Nobel prize a year later because the Nobel Committee for Physics decided that none of the year's nominations met the criteria as outlined in the will of Alfred Nobel.
Two of Planck’s Ph.D. students would later win Nobel Prizes in Physics: Max von Laue (for his discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals) and Walther Bothe (For his discovery of the method of coincidence and the discoveries subsequently made by it, which laid the foundations of nuclear spectroscopy).
Photon page 6
MAX PLANCK
- Siddhant Alva The father of quantum theory, Max Planck, revolutionized Physics by putting forth the quantum theory, one of the two fundamental theories of 20th-century Physics (the other being Einstein’s theory of relativity). Planck’s quantum theory changed our understanding of the workings of the subatomic world.
But how did he discover quantum theory? Quantum theory was not initially a very complex idea. It was discovered because of a light bulb! In the late 1800s, the German bureau of standards asked Max Planck how to make light bulbs more efficient. It was because of this question that quantum theory was discovered. But before we learn more about Planck’s discoveries let’s delve a little deeper into his beginnings.
Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck was born in Kiel, Germany, on April 23, 1858. At the age of 9, Planck’s family relocated to Munich, where one of his teachers, Hermann Müller taught him how to visualize the laws of physics and developed Max’s interest in physics. At the age of 17, Max – now a freshman at the University of Munich – decided he wanted to pursue theoretical physics because he did not enjoy practical work. In 1877, Planck transferred to Friedrich Wilhelms University where he was taught by Hermann von Helmholtz and Gustav Kirchhoff.
Photon page 7
BEGINNINGS
He developed a budding friendship with Hemholtz whose interest in thermodynamics inspired Planck. Planck went on to write his doctoral thesis on the second law of thermodynamics and became a full professor of theoretical physics.
The Quantum Leap To understand Planck’s discovery, we must discuss the interpretation of phenomena that was disproved. Upon observing molten metal, one sees a red glow which, on further heating, turns white. Light is a form of energy, so we can conclude that when things get hot, they radiate energy. Physicists theorised an ideal physical body that absorbs all electromagnetic radiation regardless of its frequency or angle of incidence and it was named a “black body”. When a black body is heated, it radiates electromagnetic waves of all wavelengths. But, in the 1800s, physicists noted that there was a mismatch between the predictions made by classical mechanics and the experiments: the colours of light radiated were different from those predicted. In the graph below, the black curve shows the predicted behaviour of a black body at a temperature of 5000K. The blue line shows the actual behaviour.
Photon page 8
Compare the curve expected from classical thermodynamic theory at a temperature of 5000 K (black line) versus that observed in experiments (blue line). They are very different! Also shown in green and red are curves at somewhat lower temperatures. (Wikipedia)
Planck’s Theory Keeping in mind these observations, Planck proposed something that changed Physics: the idea of quanta. Planck proposed a similar idea saying that only certain amounts of energy could be emitted in contrast to classical physics which held that all values could be radiated. These certain bits of energy came to be known as “quanta” and Planck gave birth to quantum theory. Just like the two times table, Planck said that all values of energy emitted must be divisible by a constant term, now called the Planck’s constant (h). Energy could now be calculated from the equation:
If you do not have an understanding of quantum theory, his proposal could be understood using a times table. Consider the two times table: 2, 4, 6, 8… only numbers that are multiples of 2 are a part of this table and the others are excluded.
E = hν where E is energy, h is Planck’s constant, and ν is the frequency of electromagnetic radiation.
The experimenters earlier could not identify that the energy radiated was quantized because the constant is an extremely small value approximately 6.626 x 10^-34 J s.
Photon page 9
This theory had momentous implications. We discovered the existence of forbidden energy states and quantum theory, which changed the way we viewed the world.
Planck’s work on quantum theory was published in the Annalen der Physik, and summarized in his two books Thermodynamik (Thermodynamics) (1897) and Theorie der Wärmestrahlung (Theory of Heat Radiation). In 1918, Planck was awarded the Nobel prize in Physics for: “the services he rendered to the advancement of Physics by his discovery of energy quanta.”
Photon page 10
JAMES WEBB TELESCOPE SATISH
After three years of delays and almost 40 years in development, the most advanced space telescope has finally launched. Like the Hubble Space Telescope, James Webb is a telescope that operates completely in space. It is currently on its way to the Second Lagrange point in the Earth-Sun system, approximately 1.5 million kilometres away from the Earth. At this point, it will not be obstructed by the Earth and Sun like Hubble is and will be able to (hopefully) help discover more about the earliest stars and galaxies of the universe. Being an infrared telescope, James Webb aims to observe very high redshift objects, from the furthest reaches in the universe. It has the largest mirror of any telescope in space, consisting of 18 hexagonal segments, and had to be folded up into three folds because of how big it is. Its journey, however, has just begun. Over the next few weeks, James Webb has to reach its destination, and unfold its mirror and sun shields. At that distance (approximately 4 times the distance to the moon) any failures would be impossible to fix, as a human mission that far out is currently not capable. All we can do is hope for the very best and wish James Webb on its journey.
Photon page 11
VARUN
Erwin Schrödinger was a famous scientist from Austria, who made many discoveries in the field of Quantum Physics. One of them was a thought experiment … with a cat! Yes, you read that right! The idea is that a cat can be dead and alive at the very same time. The theory states that a quantum cat locked inside a box with something that has a 50-50 chance of killing it, such as a radioactive atom, is both dead and alive at the same time! A definitive answer can only be found once the box is opened.
AGASTYA
NAVNEET HRISHIKESAN
FUN FACTS Imagine space. We have always thought of it as empty. Of course, it seems to be just a vacuum. But, in the bizarre world of quantum physics, it is not. There is, in fact, a certain amount of energy even in a vacuum. This energy is held by virtual particles (which are not actually virtual, sorry to disappoint you), which are particles that pop in and out of existence while other
Photon page 12
particles are interacting. These can even cause a black hole to evaporate! A black hole the size of our Sun would take 1067 years to evaporate!
The sun is an essential part of our livelihoods. It provides the warmth and light we need in our daily lives. And here in India, the warm weather we experience is mainly due to the Sun (obviously). What if I was to tell you the sun can be replaced in the world of quantum physics … by chocolate? It’s true! You see, the sun’s immense weight is why it is extremely hot. This means the gravitational pull is gigantic and thus puts it under a lot of pressure, causing nuclear fusion to occur. Thus, if a colossal amount of chocolate with the same gravitational pull and weight replaced the sun, it could perform the same function!*
*Chocolate has much heavier elements compared to the hydrogen and helium that make up the sun. This makes it unlikely for chocolate nuclear fusion to actually occur, but hey, we can still dream :)
https://www.space.com/quantum-physics-things-you-should-know https://www.physics.com.sg/4-Crazy-and-Fun-Facts-About-Quantum-Physics.htm https://www.newscientist.com/definition/quantum-physics/ https://www.newscientist.com/definition/schrodingers-cat/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/this-twist-on-schroedingers-cat-paradox-has-major-implications-for-quantum-theory/ https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/quantum-world-mind-bogglingly-weird https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2018/11/03/ask-ethan-how-do-black-holes-actually-evaporate/?sh=57f951be24a1 https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-virtual-particles-rea/# https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/304/mcs/media/images/49097000/jpg/_49097444_feynman.jpg https://images.theconversation.com/files/242486/original/file-20181026-7041-1fn8pxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1200&h=900.0&fit=crop https://images.everydayhealth.com/images/is-dark-chocolate-good-for-immune-system-1440x810.jpg
Photon page 13
Bibliography:
The art of quantum physics SHRISHTI KULKARNI
When most people think of art and physics, they think of free body diagrams. Or graphs. Or just doodling in Physics class. But there’s actually an immensely useful tool in quantum physics that is entirely based on diagrams, formulated by one of the greatest – and quirkiest – physicists of all time: Mr. Richard Feynman himself.
So what are these Feynman diagrams? Well, it may help to think of them as a map. A map that provides pathways of high-energy particle collisions. They give a clear understanding of what happens when, for example, an electron collides with another electron, while exchanging a photon. The electrons approach, exchange energy and momentum by transferring a photon, and then move apart, giving the overall effect of repulsion. And while this may seem like a very straightforward interaction, there are actually a ton of different collisions that can take place, involving multiple photons, and even temporary electron-positron pairs. But what’s important to note is that as more photons are exchanged in the collision, the probability of that type of collision decreases exponentially. Hence, for most calculations (unless they are required to be extremely accurate), we only consider the simplest Feynman diagram.
Photon page 14
Now that we’ve established what Feynman diagrams represent, it’s important to understand how to depict them. Continuing the map analogy from before, the parts of a Feynman diagram are similar to the key of a map, where they represent different parts of the equation that defines the collision.
The “key” of the Feynman diagram map would then be as follows: The incoming particle (here, the electron) – depicted by the arrow, corresponds to the “I” The outgoing particle (electron) – depicted by the arrow, corresponds to the letter “O” The photon corresponds to , where i=√-1 (the imaginary number), is the sum of the relative subatomic spin for the photon, and p is the photon’s energy The vertex of the diagram – between the photon and either of the electrons – is represented by or and conveys how the function will be summed.
Photon page 15
This is one of the simplest Feynman diagrams, depicting the interaction between two electrons with an exchange of a photon. With classical mechanics, to calculate this process, equations like that of kinetic and potential energy, forces, conservation of energy, and electric field strength would have to be used. In context of the Feynman diagrams and quantum mechanics, though, we only need to use this function:
Now what do we do with this function? We need to solve it to actually understand the energy of the collision, but those calculations are extremely complicated. You may ask then, what’s the point of the Feynman diagrams if everything is complicated again? The point is that they very easily convey everything that is happening in an interaction, and directly provide an equation for the same. Additionally, like we mentioned before, Fenyman diagrams give a simple visualization of what would otherwise be an arcane and abstract formula. Feynman diagrams help us summarize these possibilities, and calculate the solution with as much precision as we want. However, if it were that simple, then we’d know a lot more about quantum mechanics by now. Unfortunately, even the great Mr. Feynman had limitations. For the collisions of subatomic particles like quarks and gluons, we see thousands of Feynman diagrams, making it almost impossible to calculate the solutions of the scattering amplitude. Despite some drawbacks, the Feynman diagrams basically changed the way we approached quantum mechanics, and helped us explore new pathways with ease and confidence after all, isn’t that what a map does? So the next time you’re doodling in Physics class, keep your doodles and look a little closer. Who knows, maybe you’ve come up with a map yourself.
Photon page 16
Sources: https://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/FeynmanDiagram.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk1cOffTgdk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe7atm1x6Mg
It's a small world
It’s never the end, As they went deeper, they found to be smaller. Atom is the smallest JJ Thomson said, Fie! Subatomic particles are For they consist, quarks, the smallest particle presently Variety of them, six quarks Who do form the protons and neutrons;
Quarks the smallest, and they tried to break them Attempts in said Large Hadron collisions Resulting in null But to the discovery, Perhaps they are bound for eternity By a formidable force of one of the four exchange particles, gluon;
You might see something smaller as you go deeper, Deeper into the branch that recognised us. It is the quantum physics and it is never the end to the minuteness, After all it’s a small world with smaller, and smaller particles.
Photon page 17
Gauri Agarwal
Quantum
CONSCIOUSNESS BY ADITYA AHER WHEN THEORIES THAT TRY TO EXPLAIN BIG METAPHYSICAL MYSTERIES FALL SHORT
Photon page 18
What is quantum consciousness? This guy?
(The bad guy from The Matrix)
Sadly, no. Scientifically, quantum consciousness is a group of hypotheses that propose that classical mechanics cannot explain consciousness. Instead, it states that quantum-mechanical phenomena, such as entanglement and superposition, may play an important part in the brain’s function and could explain consciousness. Less scientifically, it is what you get by mixing the science used in the Avengers: Endgame and the brain’s consciousness. But this is a scientific magazine dedicated towards scientific explanations, so let’s take a look at the science of it. Let me break it down for you.
Quantum mechanics is science’s most precise, powerful theory of reality. It has predicted countless experiments, and spawned a plethora of applications. But introducing consciousness into physics undermines its claim to objectivity, because as far as we know, consciousness arises only in certain organisms that have existed for a (relatively) brief period here on Earth. So how can quantum mechanics, if it’s a theory of information rather than matter and energy, apply to the entire cosmos since the Big Bang?
Photon page 19
Firstly, what is consciousness? It’s essentially the awareness and understanding we have of ourselves and our surroundings.
There are three basic types of corresponding approaches: Consciousness is a manifestation of quantum processes in the brain Quantum concepts are used to understand consciousness without referring to brain activity Matter and Consciousness are regarded as dual aspects of one underlying reality Quantum Brain Neurophysiological Levels A model developed by Beck and Eccles applies concrete quantum mechanical features to describe details of the process of exocytosis, i.e.,moving materials from within a cell to the exterior of the cell. By examining these processes in the brain on a quantum level, they proposed a relation between consciousness and quantum mechanics. Quantum State Reductions and Conscious Acts At a level where conscious mental states and material brain states are distinguished, each conscious experience has a physical counterpart: a quantum state reduction actualizing the neural correlate of that conscious experience. Such intentional mental states are assumed to correspond to reductions of superposition states of neuronal assemblies. However, it is not yet known precisely how quantum superpositions and their collapses are supposed to occur in neural correlates of conscious events. Quantum Field Theory of Brain States In the 1960s, Ricciardi and Umezawa suggested utilizing the formalism of quantum field theory to describe brain states, with particular emphasis on memory.
Photon page 20
The basic idea is to think of memory states in terms of states of manyparticle systems, as inequivalent representations of vacuum states of quantum fields. Via a somewhat complicated process, this provides a quantum field theoretical derivation of ordered states in many-body systems, such as in the arrangement of neurons in the brain. This way,
quantum field theory provides formal elements from which a standard classical description of brain activity can be inferred. Quantum Mind Corresponding quantum-inspired approaches address purely mental (psychological) phenomena using formal features also employed in quantum physics, but without involving the full-fledged framework of quantum mechanics or quantum field theory. On the surface, this seems to imply that the brain activity correlated with those mental processes is in fact governed by quantum physics. However, it is likely that mental states show features that resemble quantum behaviour although the correlated brain activity may be entirely classical, i.e. we could have a quantum mind without necessarily having a quantum brain. This approach using mental quantum features has addressed several kinds of psychological phenomena. Mind and Matter as Dual Aspects
For further reading: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qt-consciousness/ https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1rxa5n/eli5_quantu m_theory_ of_consciousness/ https://physicsworld.com/a/do-quantum-effects-play-a-role-inconsciousness/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-god-quantummechanics-and-consciousness-have-in-common/
Photon page 21
Dual-aspect approaches consider mental (consciousness-related) and material (matter-related) domains of reality as two sides of the same coin, an underlying reality in which mind and matter are unseparated. An important distinction between two basic classes of dual-aspect thinking is the way in which the psychophysically neutral domain is related to the mental and the physical. The compositional arrangements of psychophysically neutral elements decide how they differ with respect to mental or physical properties. As a consequence, the mental and the physical are reducible to the neutral domain
DID WE KILL MOORE'S LAW BY BECOMING TOO SMALL? BY THEJASVI SAMPATH What is happening to Moore’s law? Why are transistors being produced at a slower rate? Why is there a cat called Heisenberg in the house? These questions plagued Richard as he looked at the data, cleaning after the cat. It couldn’t be refuted. Moore’s law was dying. But what is Moore’s law? And why is it so important to computation?
So this is Moore’s law: the doubling of the number of transistors on a chip every 2 years. Now we move onto why it is failing. Transistors are like the on/off switches of integrated circuits, the barriers preventing some information from flowing through. They are the true 0 and 1 of computers. Nowadays, transistors are on the scale of nanometers. The smallest transistor, produced by Intel, is 2 nanometers wide. That’s just 10 times larger than a silicon atom!
Photon page 22
But as we reach greater heights with smaller scales, we face more problems. Firstly, the leakage of current.
As the size decreases, the amount of current which “leaks”, or is lost to the environment in the form of heat, proportionally increases due to increased surface area. This means that the amount of power supplied to maintain the current and voltage also increases as we go to atomic scales! But that’s the smallest problem.
The largest hurdle we face lies in the very laws of physics, specifically, in quantum teleportation. Yes, I said teleportation. But this is not your regular kind of teleporting phenomenon. This is the probabilistic type.
Electrons behave as both a particle and a wave. This means that they also obey Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, which states that we can
Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle
Photon page 23
never be sure of both the velocity and the position of a particle at a given moment in time. Hence, its position at an instant is not confined to a small place, but rather the particle has a probability of being in multiple places!
Now comes the freaky part! If there is a barrier near the electron, the probability that an electron is observed beyond the energy barrier is – unlike what one would expect using common sense – not 0! In classical mechanics, if the energy of the electron (E) is less than the energy of the barrier (V), then the electron can’t pass through the barrier. But this is quantum mechanics. If E is almost equal to V (it can even be lower), then the electron can still pass through the barrier! It’s almost as if the barrier isn’t even there.
And this is where problem arises.
the
If an electron can pass through a barrier on an atomic scale, then the barrier created by the transistor, which is also in the atomic scale, is redundant. The number of errors would be countless. The “noise” would cause all calculations to be faulty. Numerous error correction systems must be implemented, occupying a lot of space. If a transistor can’t differentiate between the state of on/off then what is the point of it?
And the worst part is, there are no known ways to stop this! It is a direct consequence of quantum mechanics. That is how quantum mechanics is killing the transistor industry. And that is also how becoming too small is killing Moore’s Law.
Photon page 24
QUANTUM QUIZ 1. WHAT WAS THE FIRST ANTIPARTICLE DISCOVERED? a
positron
b
antineutrino
c
antiproton
d
none of the above
2. IF SCHRODINGER'S CAT IS IN A CLOSED BOX WITH A POTENTIALLY FATAL RADIOACTIVE ATOM, IT IS __ UNTIL YOU OPEN THE BOX: a
alive
b
dead
c
both alive and dead at the same time
d
either alive or dead
3. WHICH PARTICLES ARE KNOWN TO HAVE MASS? a
photon
b
gluon
c
electron neutrino
d
none of the above
4. WHAT DOES A PHOTON'S ENERGY DEPEND ON? a
wavelength
b
speed
c
intensity
d
coffee
Visit
to find more bite-sized information!
Photon page 25
HTTPS://THEPHOTONMAG.WIXSITE.COM/HOME/BLOG
1. a, 2. c, 3. c, 4. d
‘Newton Forgive Me’: How to Differentiate between Newton’s and Einstein’s Theories of Gravity Sreshta Pothula In today’s world, some believe that it only makes sense for the speed with which an object falls to increase with an increase in the object’s mass. This idea supported the popular Aristotelian view on gravity before the famous Italian scientist Galileo Galilei contradicted it in the late 16th century. All he had to do was go up to the leaning tower of Pisa, drop two objects of different masses, and notice that both reached the ground at the same time. That’s how the concept of acceleration due to free fall was established, paving the way for what we refer to as gravity.
him wonder why the moon hadn’t already crashed into the earth like the apple.
Photon page 26
It was questions like these that led to the coining of the term “gravity”, which Newton first discovered acted between all objects in the universe including both the apple and earth. In simple terms, it was a force between two objects, pulling them closer together based on their masses. Newton’s law of gravity, that two material objects attract each other with a force proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distances between Another scientist’s work was inspired them, was later experimentally proven from falling objects, although it may by Henry Cavendish using everyday not be as legendary as it is portrayed objects. to be. This time, the object is an apple. As you must’ve guessed, we’re talking Newton’s approach to gravity as a “pullabout Isaac Newton. The apple did force” was predominant in the have a small role in Newton’s scientific community, shown to be inventions as he sat in a farm in remarkably accurate amongst both Lincolnshire with an ample number of small and large objects, until Albert apple trees to watch. That’s what made Einstein’s revolutionary theory in 1915
which proposed that gravity is not a force, but in fact just a result of the curvature of a 4-dimensional spacetime. He used his theory of general relativity to explain that gravity is simply a push that acts when objects want to go in straight lines but cannot because they are deformed by this “fabric” of spacetime that they are situated in. Then what exactly prompted this new approach to gravity? Inconsistencies.
of Newton’s discoveries, but he was humble enough to acknowledge this in his memoirs with “Newton forgive me”, going on to say that Newton “found the only way … possible for a man of highest thought and creative power”. Sources: https://www.thoughtco.com/newtonslaw-of-gravity-2698878 https://www.amnh.org/explore/videos/ space/gravity-making-waves/newtoneinstein-gravity
Even though Einstein believed that gravity is a curvature of spacetime rather than a force between two objects of different masses, as proposed by Newton, both theories confirm that greater the masses of the objects, the greater the gravitational force or warping of the space around the object by gravity. Einstein certainly contradicted many
Photon page 27
Einstein used the predictions to locate planets. That’s when he noticed discrepancies: for example, Mercury’s orbit shifted faster than Newton predicted. By looking at examples of larger objects that are far away and moving fast, he ensured that any errors in the theory would result in visible gaps between the predictions and actual values as compared to smaller objects.
QUANTUM SENSOR COULD HELP DETECT DEMENTIA HARSHITH PRABHAKAR GOWDA As known to many, dementia is not a specific disease, but rather “a general term for an impaired ability to remember, think, or make decisions that interfere in everyday activities”, according to the CDC. A new quantum sensor developed by scientists at the University of Sussex in the UK could help clinicians identify diseases such as dementia, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s by tracking patients’ brain waves and monitoring how their speed changes over time. The sensor, which is based on a highspatial resolution neuroimaging technique, magnetoencephalography (MEG), uses an array of quantum devices known as optically-pumped magnetometers (OPMs) to map the tiny magnetic fields generated when neurons in the brain send out electrical signals.
Photon page 28
These quantum scanners can detect the magnetic fields generated when neurons fire. Measuring moment-tomoment changes in the brain, they can
track the speed at which signals move. The element of time is important because it means that a patient could be scanned several months apart to compare and check whether their brain activity is slowing down.
These quantum sensors are believed to be much more accurate than either EEG or fMRI scanners used today, partly due to the fact that these sensors can get closer to the skull. However, MEG scanners are currently expensive and bulky, making them challenging to use in clinical practice. The development of this quantum sensor technology could be crucial in bringing these scanners into real-world clinical settings. Sources: https://www.technologynetworks.com/neuroscience/news/quantum-brain-sensors-couldidentify-dementia-356285 https://physicsworld.com/a/quantum-sensor-could-help-detect-dementia/ https://www.google.com/search? q=Quantum+sensor+could+help+detect+dementia&rlz=1C5CHFA_enIN916IN916&source=lnms &tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi9JmI7en0AhXQxzgGHeyQBdkQ_AUoAnoECAEQBA&biw=1280&bih=689&dpr=1#imgrc=np86Z_D YkijHCM
The Importance of Being Earnest DEVARYA SINGHANIA The Importance of Being Earnest narrates the viewpoints of three subatomic particles – the neutron, electron and proton – in the realm of Physics where they aren’t appreciated or credited for the advancements in Physics. And rather, the credit is provided to other projects/discoveries. It calls upon one to be earnest about being like Ernest Rutherford whose work is regarded with the discovery of the proton. All, displayed through the title, and the acrostics in the first letter of each of the lines.
Probably only artistic yet. Let me directly convey. A team of three; a trio. Not physics; scientific gowns. Ranging from nuclear devastation. Domination of Atoms, swirled. Typically learnt from birth; understood still by none. Portray Images of blocks you constantly witness. Ignore, the crown Conclusively astray. We ask for recognition, we stand curled. Left to the interpretation of the great, as I am critiqued, may Even go ahead and exercise my second nucleus. Around Sentiments; hurt and abused. A trio aloof in the world.
Photon page 29
Struck down by theories; defined by Rutherford. Ultimately we build you up, strike you down. Blocks are bound by us; simplest to say. Associated scarcely, for we’re invisible in another world. Totally demonized by larger strings, we rebound. Omnipresent; yet aloof, ignored; unable to convey My form to your education, for textbooks unfurled I – We were still misunderstood. The 1900s’ frown. Crafted by the genius of physics, his physics. Paving the way,
Congratulations to
AGASTYA
NH
for writing the best submission of Photon Issue #4, July 2021 GALILEO
GALILEI
AND
THE
FLOW
as voted by our readers PHOTON TOP WRITER
OF
TIME
Photon page 30
PHOTON TOP WRITER
VOTE FOR THE BEST SUBMISSION! It's easy!
Click here WINNER GETS A SHOUTOUT IN THE NEXT EDITION!
LIKED IT? Contact us at
for info about the next edition
Photon page 31
thephotonmag@gmail.com
PHOTON JANUARY 2022
05 Editors-in-Chief Shrishti Kulkarni / Siddhant Doshi
Editors Nydile Theju Mohan / Devarya Singhania / Harshith Prabhakar Gowda
Correspondents Krisha Kothari / Varun Satish / Siddhant Alva / Agastya Navneet Hrishikesan / Shrishti Kulkarni / Gauri Agarwal / Aditya Aher / Thejasvi Sampath / Sreshta Pothula / Harshith Prabhakar Gowda / Devarya Singhania
Visit our website at: thephotonmag.wixsite.com/home Follow us on Instagram: @thephotonmag Email us at: thephotonmag@gmail.com