Quantum Mechanics....
One thing thats common between me and Albert Einstein (and probably the only thing) is that i hate Quantum Mechanics too. He once said "God does not play dice". All these days i abhored quantum mechanics for two reasons : 1. Like Einstein, i too do not belived in the fact that the universe will be governed by uncertainities and probabilities in the sub atomic level. 2. Its too complex for me.
However, i recently read a book called "Black Holes & Baby Universes" by Stephen Hawking. He had made a groun breaking theoritical discovery that black holes are not really black. They actually radiate energy - they are 'evaporating'.
Now how is this possible? According to quantum mechanics, empty space is not actually 'empty'. There is continuous formation of matter and antimatter and these annihilate each other releasing energy. This has also been proved experimentally by observing what physicists call 'Lamb shift'.
In the vicinity of the black hole's event horizon (event horizon is that boundary around the black hole beyond which you can not escape the gravitational force of it) these matter- antimatter interactions take place. It is possible that one of these particles might be pull into the black hole and the other will be flung out, thus it will seem as though the radiations are coming out of the black hole. This is one explanation.
Another explanation, and this is the one that really impressed me, is that, according to quantum mechanics, It is impossible to accurately find the position and velocity of a particle simultaneously. This is called heisenberg's uncertainity principle. Thus, when a particle is inside the blackhole, its position is certain because its a singularity. However, the velocity of the particle is not. Thus its velocity can be anything, even more than the velocity of light! and hence it can actually escape the gravitational field of the blackhole!
After realising this, i really started liking quantum mechanics a lot because i have always felt that the speed of light cant be a barrier. Quantum mechanics has really captured my attention. I really hope that one day we can travel faster than light....
However, i recently read a book called "Black Holes & Baby Universes" by Stephen Hawking. He had made a groun breaking theoritical discovery that black holes are not really black. They actually radiate energy - they are 'evaporating'.
Now how is this possible? According to quantum mechanics, empty space is not actually 'empty'. There is continuous formation of matter and antimatter and these annihilate each other releasing energy. This has also been proved experimentally by observing what physicists call 'Lamb shift'.
In the vicinity of the black hole's event horizon (event horizon is that boundary around the black hole beyond which you can not escape the gravitational force of it) these matter- antimatter interactions take place. It is possible that one of these particles might be pull into the black hole and the other will be flung out, thus it will seem as though the radiations are coming out of the black hole. This is one explanation.
Another explanation, and this is the one that really impressed me, is that, according to quantum mechanics, It is impossible to accurately find the position and velocity of a particle simultaneously. This is called heisenberg's uncertainity principle. Thus, when a particle is inside the blackhole, its position is certain because its a singularity. However, the velocity of the particle is not. Thus its velocity can be anything, even more than the velocity of light! and hence it can actually escape the gravitational field of the blackhole!
After realising this, i really started liking quantum mechanics a lot because i have always felt that the speed of light cant be a barrier. Quantum mechanics has really captured my attention. I really hope that one day we can travel faster than light....
posted by Kedhar at 12:32 AM
3 Comments:
I dont wish to travel faster than light...as it is we are runnin a rat race....and I still hate quantum mechanics...but the bright side to this is...I jus have to do it this year and will never see it again..but blackholes really fasinate me and Hawkings books are the best in explaining these theories...like to read them once in a while...
ohhh...i see...so that senior made u fall in love with quantum mechie is it...well if i go to an oprah concert...will surely post some pics and share my experience in my blog :D
well.. hav u come across de term.."Hawking Radiation" a discovery made by hawking himself. According to QM, wat we cal empty space is actually not empty..It s full of random fluctuations...so Wat u call de vacuum energy is converted into a particle-antiparticle pair by Einstein's E = mC^2 eqn...n de viceversa also happens...the life time of these particles is very small in order of ps/fs..) Now if this happens at the edge of a blachole's event horizon such tht one particle is attractd by de hole while de other manages a narrow escape... then tht seems lik the blackhole is emittin radiation... if de hole is emittin radiation then it has to lose energy... yes it does indeed... wen it absorbs a particle, a -ve energy is added to it... therby decreasin its mass/energy... infact this is hoe a blackhole dies(ofcourse it dies not before 10^60 yrs-a normal blackhole)...And one more thing... Einstein never said speeds above 'c'(speed of light) is impossible.. he jus said "Information cannot be transmitted at a speed above 'c'."
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