A Travel Guide through the World of Quants
- News
At the Faculty of Physics' " Treffpunkt Quantenmechanik" ("Meeting Point Quantum Mechanics"), pupils and teachers can get to know this important field of physics independently through experiments. The aim of the meeting point is to intensify contacts with schools and get pupils interested in scientific topics. As part of a senior professorship from the Wilhelm and Else Heraeus Foundation, Prof. Joachim Stolze has now written a handbook that presents the Treffpunkt's experiments in the context of the fundamentals of quantum mechanics. His explanations are supplemented by detailed experimental instructions from Dr. Sebastian Duffe. The new "Guide to the World of Quants" helps pupils and teachers to carry out, prepare and follow up the experiments.
Although quantum physics has been at the heart of modern physics for over a century and forms the basis of modern technology, from GPS navigation systems to photovoltaics, it continues to defy understanding. The Quantum Mechanics Meeting Point is a teaching and learning laboratory of the Faculty of Physics that offers pupils, teachers and students the opportunity to explore the world of quanta in experiments. It focuses on the discoveries that made the development of quantum mechanics necessary as well as on selected applications.
As part of the senior professorship awarded to him by the Wilhelm and Else Heraeus Foundation, apl. Prof. Joachim Stolze from the Faculty of Physics has written a handbook that explains the experiments available at Treffpunkt Quantenmechanik and provides an overview of them. Detailed experiment instructions, written by Dr. Sebastian Duffe, a teacher at the Albrecht-Dürer-Gymnasium in Hagen, complete the overview.
As a kind of travel guide through the world of quanta, the handbook begins by asking whether quantum physics is important, strange or incomprehensible. It explains why particles sometimes behave like waves and how indeterminacy and chance come into physics. It also discusses some historically important experiments that are available in the quantum mechanics meeting place. More modern topics such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and quantum computers are also covered. Central concepts such as the uncertainty principle can be explored in greater depth with a slightly higher dose of mathematics.
Students or teachers who would like to carry out experiments at Treffpunkt Quantenmechanik can borrow the handbook for preparation or follow-up work. A limited number of copies are available, the printing of which was made possible by the Wilhelm and Else Heraeus Foundation. The overview section without the detailed experiment instructions can be downloaded from the Treffpunkt Quantenmechanik website.
To the "Treffpunkt Quantenmechanik"
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