Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Classical Mechanics vs. Quantum Mechanics

In order to illustrate the analogy I presented in my preceding post between Newton's laws and QM laws, I composed the following images (you may view them better at wikiversity).


Newtonian mechanics consider relative motions (translational motions or rotational motions with respect to a reference point). Uniform motion takes place when no net forces exert on the body.

The dynamical laws of Quantum mechanics concern an absolute motion: the spinning of an object represented by an arrow. Such an object has uniform spinning motion when no force exerts on it.

It is often said that Quantum Mechanics comes into play when the scale of the elements of the system is microscopic. This restricted view hides the fact that the fundamental difference between CM and QM is not a difference of scale but a difference of describing the objects and their motions. CM focuses on objects that are located at points and on their relative motions. QM focuses on objects whose orientations evolve absolutely. This allows us to approach QM intuitively, reasoning on how arrow-like objects would behave in real life.