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Quantum Physics Explains Newton's Laws of Motion

Quantum Physics Explains Newton's Laws of Motion

FEATURES www.iop.org/journals/physed explains Newton’s laws of

Jon Ogborn1 and Edwin F Taylor2

1 Institute of Education, University of London, UK 2 Massachusetts Institute of , Cambridge, MA 02139, USA

Abstract Newton was obliged to give his laws of motion as fundamental . But today we know that the quantum is fundamental, and Newton’s laws can be seen as consequences of fundamental quantum laws. This article traces this transition from fundamental quantum to derived .

Explaining Fermat’s : source of the key It is common to quantum physics and the quantum idea behaviour of quantum objects such as or Geometrical predicts the formation of as mysterious and peculiar. And indeed, images by rays. Examples are images due in ’s words, electrons do ‘behave to reflection and images formed by eyeglasses and in their own inimitable way . . . in a way that is like camera lenses. All of —every nothing that you have ever seen before.’ (Feynman path of every light ray—can be predicted from a 1965, p 128). single principle: Between source and reception But it was also Richard Feynman who point light travels along a path that takes the devised a way to describe quantum behaviour with shortest possible . This is called Fermat’s astounding simplicity and clarity (Feynman 1985). principle after the Frenchman Pierre de Fermat There is no longer any need for the mystery that (1601–1665). comes from trying to describe quantum behaviour A simple example of Fermat’s principle is the as some strange approximation to the classical law of reflection: angle of incidence equals angle behaviour of and . Instead we of reflection. Fermat’s principle also accounts turn the job of explaining around. We start from for the of a lens: a lens places different quantum behaviour and show how this explains classical behaviour. thicknesses of glass along different paths so that This may make you uncomfortable at first. every ray takes the same time to travel from a Why explain familiar things in terms of something point on the source to the corresponding point on unfamiliar? But this is the way explanations have the image. Fermat’s principle accounts for how to . Explanations that don’t start somewhere a curved mirror in a telescope works: the mirror else than what they explain don’t explain! is bent so that each path takes the same time to In this article we show that quantum reach the focus. These and other examples are mechanics actually explains why Newton’s laws discussed in the Advancing Physics AS Student’s of motion are good enough to predict how footballs Book (Ogborn and Whitehouse 2000). and satellites move. For Newton, fundamental Fermat’s contemporaries had a fundamental laws had to be axioms—starting points. For us, objection to his principle, asking him a profound Newton’s laws are seen to be consequences of the question, ‘How could the light possibly know in fundamental way the quantum world works. advance which path is the quickest?’ The answer

26 P HYSICS E DUCATION 40 (1) 0031-9120/05/010026+09$30.00 © 2005 IOP Publishing Ltd Quantum physics explains Newton’s laws of motion goes very deep and was delivered fully only in the emission of a at one place and time and its twentieth century. Here is the key idea: The light detection at a different place and time. (There are explores all possible paths between emission and also rules for how the length of the arrow changes reception. Later we will find a similar rule for with , which yield an inverse square law motion of atomic particles such as the : a of intensity with distance. For simplicity we explores all possible paths between source consider only cases where the vary little and detector. This is the basic idea behind the and changes in arrow length can be ignored.) formulation of developed by The resultant arrow determines the probabil- Richard Feynman (1985). ity of the event. The is equal to the The idea of exploring all possible paths raises (suitably normalized) square of the length of the two deep questions: (1) What does it mean to arrow. In this way the classical result that the in- explore all paths? (2) How can ‘explore all tensity is proportional to the square of the paths’ be reconciled with the fact that everyday amplitude is recovered. objects (such as footballs) and light rays follow We have outlined Feynman’s simple and vivid unique single paths? To answer these questions description of ‘quantum behaviour’ for a photon. is to understand the bridge that connects quantum In effect he steals the of Huygens’ mechanics to Newton’s mechanics. without assuming that there are waves. For Huygens, wavelets go everywhere because What does Explore all paths! mean? that is what waves do. For Feynman, photons ‘go everywhere’ because that is what photons do. The idea of exploring all paths descends from ’ idea of wavelets (1690). Huygens explained the propagation of a wavefront The bridge from quantum to classical by imagining that each point on the wavefront physics sends out a spherical . He could then The next question is this: How can ’s show that the wavelets reconstitute the wavefront command Explore all paths! be made to fit with at a later time; the parts of the wavelets going our everyday that an such as a everywhere else just cancel each other out. In 1819 football or a light ray follows a single path? the French road and bridge engineer Augustin The short answer is It does not follow a Fresnel put the idea on a sound mathematical single path! There is no clean limit between basis and used it to explain optical and particles that can be shown to explore many paths interference effects in precise detail. and everyday objects. What do you mean by In the 1940s Richard Feynman (following a everyday objects anyway? Things with a wide hint from Dirac) adapted Huygens’ idea to give range of and structural complexity are quantum physics a new foundation, starting with ‘everyday’ objects of study by many . the quantum of light: the photon. Nature’s simple A recent example is interference observed for three-word command to the photon is Explore all the large of the fullerene carbon-70, paths!; try every possible route from source to which has the approximate of 840 detector. Each possible path is associated with a (www.quantum.at). change of . One can imagine a photon having In fact quantum behaviour tapers off gradually a ‘stopclock’ whose hand rotates at the classical into classical behaviour. This and the following of the light. The starts when sections show you how to predict the range of the photon is emitted; the rotation stops when the this taper for various kinds of . In the photon arrives at the detector. The final meantime, as you look around you, think about the of the hand gives an ‘arrow’ for that path. deep in which the football goes from foot to The photon explores all paths between goal by way of Japan. So do the photons by which emission event and a possible detection event. The you see your nearby friend! arrows for all paths are to be added head-to-tail The key idea is illustrated in figure 1 for the (that is, taking account of their phases, just as case of photons reflected from a mirror. The mirror wavelets are to be superposed) to find the total is conceptually divided into little segments, sub- resultant quantum amplitude (resultant arrow) for mirrors labelled A to M. The little arrows shown an event. This resultant arrow describes the under each section in the middle panel correspond

January 2005 P HYSICS E DUCATION 27 J Ogborn andEFTaylor in many directions, so total contributions from SPthese end-segments never amount to much. Even if we extend the mirror AM on each side to make it longer, the contributions to the resulting arrow made by reflections from the sections of these ABCDEFGHI J KLM right-and-left extensions add almost nothing to the total resulting arrow. Why? Because they will all curl even more tightly than arrows ABC and KLM at the two ends of the resulting arrow shown in the bottom panel of the figure. Most of the

time resulting arrow comes from the small proportion of arrows that ‘line up’, and almost nothing comes from those that ‘curl up’. ABCDEFGHI J KLM Now you see how Explore all paths! leads to a narrow spread of paths that contribute significantly to the resulting arrow at P. And that narrow spread I J must lie near the path of minimum time of travel, H M B because that is where the time, and so the phase, C K L varies only slightly from path to nearby path. A G Here then is the answer to Fermat’s critics. D F E They asked ‘How could the light possibly know in Figure 1. Many paths account of reflection at a mirrror advance which path is the quickest?’ Answer: the (adapted from Feynman 1985, p 43). Each path the light photon does not know in advance: it explores all could go (in this simplified situation) is shown at the top, with a point on the graph below showing the time paths. However, only paths nearest to the quickest it takes a photon to go from the source to that point on path contribute significantly to the resulting arrow the mirror, and then to the photomultiplier. Below the and therefore to its squared magnitude, the graph is the direction of each arow, and at the bottom probability that the photon will arrive at any point is the result of adding all the arrows. It is evident that P. the major contribution to the final arrow’s length is made by arrows E through I, whose directions are nearly This answer delivers more than a crushing the same because the timing of their paths is nearly the riposte. It goes further and tells by how much same. This also happens to be where the total time is Fermat’s prescription can be in error. How big least. It is therefore approximately right to say that light is the spread of paths around the single classical goes where the time is least. path? To give as wide a range as possible to the paths that contribute to the resulting arrow, find the to the hand of the stopclock when the little ray from arrows nearest to the centre that point in nearly the that section arrives at the point of observation P. opposite direction to the central arrows G and H in In the bottom panel these little arrows are added up figure 1. Little arrows C and K point in nearly the head-to-tail1 in order to predict the resulting large opposite direction to G and H. So our generous arrow at point P. It is the squared magnitude of this criterion for contribution to the resulting arrow is resulting arrow that determines the probability that the following: the photon will arrive at P. Find the little arrows that point most As the caption to the figure comments, the nearly in the direction of the resulting arrows E to I make the greatest contribution to arrow. Call these the central arrows. the final arrow because their directions are almost The range of arrows around these central the same as one another. Arrows from nearby arrows that contribute most significantly mirror segments on either end of the mirror point to the resulting arrow are those which 1 This method of adding up contributions was invented by point less than half a revolution away Fresnel. If we make the mirror very wide and divide it into from the direction of the central arrows. thousands of much smaller segments, the resulting plot of combined arrows becomes smooth, and is known as Cornu’s As an example, think of viewing a source of spiral. light through a slit, as shown in figure 2. Limit

28 P HYSICS E DUCATION January 2005 Quantum physics explains Newton’s laws of motion Electrons do it too! In our analyses of photon reflection and straight- line transmission we assumed that the hand of the photon stopclock rotates at the frequency f of the b b classical wave. If we are to use a similar analysis d a a for an electron or other ‘ordinary’ submicroscopic source d eye b b particle, we need to know the corresponding frequency of rotation of its quantum stopclock. With this question we have reached bottom: there is nothing more fundamental with which Figure 2. Extreme paths through a slit (not to scale). to answer this question than simply to give the answer that underlies nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. This answer forms Feynman’s the infinite number of possible paths to those new basis for quantum physics, then propagates consisting of two straight segments of equal length between source and eye. How wide (width 2d in upward, forming the bridge by which quantum the figure) does the slit have to be in order to pass mechanics explains Newtonian mechanics. most of the light from the source that we would Here then is that fundamental answer: For observe by eye? an ‘ordinary’ particle, a particle with mass, the We can get numbers quickly. Apply quantum stopclock rotates at a frequency Pythagoras’ theorem to one of the right triangles L K − U abd in the figure: f = = (nonrelativistic particles). h h a2 + d2 = b2 (2) In this h is the famous quantum of or action known as the . L is called d2 = b2 − a2 = (b + a)(b − a) ≈ 2a(b − a). the Lagrangian. For single particles moving at nonrelativistic the Lagrangian is given by In the last step we have made the assumption that a the difference between the kinetic K and and b are nearly the same length; that is, we make the U. a small percentage error by equating (b + a) to 2a. Is this weird? Of course it is weird. We will check this assumption after substituting Remember: ‘Explanations that don’t start some- numerical values. where else than what they explain don’t explain!’ Our criterion is that the difference 2(b − a) If equation (2) for a particle were not weird, the between the paths be equal to half a , ancients would have discovered it. The ancients the distance over which the stopclock hand were just as smart as we are, but they had reverses direction. Take the distance a between slit not experienced the long, slow development of and either source or receptor to be a = 1 metre and physical theory needed to arrive at this equation. −8 use green light for which λ = 600 nm = 60×10 Equation (2) is the kernel of how the microworld metres. Then works: accept it; celebrate it! λ − For a free electron equation (2) reduces to d2 ≈ a = 1 × 30 × 10 8 m2 (1) 2 K × –4 f = (nonrelativistic ). (3) so that d is about 5 10 m. Therefore 2d, the h width of the slit, is about one millimetre. (Check: b2 = a2 + d2 = (1+3× 10−7) m2, so our assump- This looks a lot like the corresponding equation tion that b + a ≈ 2a is justified.)2 for photons: 2 Try looking at a nearby bright object through the slit formed E by two fingers held parallel and close together at arm’s length. f = (photon) At a finger separation of a millimetre or so, the object looks just h as bright. When the gap between fingers closes up, the image spreads; the result of diffraction. For a very narrow range of (though mere likeness proves nothing, of course). alternative paths, geometrical optics and Fermat’s principle no With the fundamental assumption of equa- longer rule. But arrow-adding still works. tion (2), all the analysis above concerning the

January 2005 P HYSICS E DUCATION 29 J Ogborn andEFTaylor photon can be translated into a description of ‘Explore all paths’ and the principle of the behaviour of the electron. We can ask, least action ‘For what does the free electron have the Equation (2) is important enough to be worth same frequency as green light?’ Green light has repeating here: frequency f = c/λ = 0.5 × 1015 Hz. From equation (3) you can show that the speed v of L K − U such an electron is about one-tenth of the speed of f = = . h h light, near the boundary between nonrelativistic and relativistic phenomena. The energy of this It gives the rate of rotation of the quantum arrow − electron is approximately 3 × 10 16 J or 2000 eV, along a path. Thus the sum () of (L/h) dt a modest accelerating voltage. For a or along a path gives the total number of the mass is about 2000 along a path. The integral of L dt has a name and greater and the speed is less by the square root a long history. The Irish mathematician William of this, a factor of about 1/45. For the carbon- Rowan Hamilton (1805–1865) formulated this 70 mentioned previously, the speed is integral, to which we give the name action.He less than a kilometre per second to get a quantum showed that the classical path between two points frequency equal to that of green light. fixed in and time was always the path that For particles of greater mass the quantum had the least (or anyway, stationary) value for the frequency in equation (3) increases and the action. He called this the principle of varying effective wavelength decreases. Because the action. Most nowadays call it the principle of least numerical magnitude of the quantum of action h action, not worrying about the fact that sometimes is so small, the range of like those the action is stationary at a saddle point. The action in figure 2 contracts rapidly, for particles of along a path is just the sum of a lot of contributions increasing mass, toward the single we observe in everyday life. of the form It is possible to compare the Try all paths! L dt = (K − U)dt. story to a wave story, and identify a ‘wavelength’ for an electron (see the Appendix). The result is Feynman’s crucial and deep discovery was that the well-known de Broglie relation: you can base quantum mechanics on the postulate h λ = . (4) that L divided by the quantum of action h mv is the rate of rotation of the quantum arrow. This lets us estimate the quantum spread in the We have therefore started at that point, with trajectory of a football. Think of a straight path, the fundamental quantum command Explore all a mass of half a kilogram and a speed of 10 paths! We then went to the in which metres per second. Then the wavelength from all paths contract toward one path and the quantum equation (4) is approximately command is transformed into Follow the path of least action! h 7 × 10−34 Js λ = ≈ ≈ 10−34 m. mv 0.5kg× 10 m s−1 Least action explains Newton’s laws of How wide a slit is necessary for a straight-line path (figure 2)? For a path length 2a = 20 m, motion equation (1) gives us We complete the transition to Newtonian mechanics by showing, by illustration rather than 2 ≈ −33 2 d 10 m proof, that the principle of least action leads so the effective transverse spread of the path due directly to Newton’s second law: F = dp/dt.We to quantum effects is adapt a simple way to do this described by Hanc et al (2003). We choose the special case of one- 2d ∼ 10−16 m. dimensional motion in a potential energy function In other words, the centre of the football follows that varies linearly with position. To be specific, essentially a single path, as Newton and everyday think of a football rising and falling in the vertical experience attest. y-direction near Earth’s surface, so the potential

30 P HYSICS E DUCATION January 2005 Quantum physics explains Newton’s laws of motion

varying the worldline by a small amount over a short segment

AB

y raise midpoint of by segment by by

bt bt vertical distance

time t

the action must not vary as the path varies

b(action) = (bLA + bLB)bt where by varies and bt is fixed

bLA = b(KA – UA)

bLB = b(KB – UB) action will not vary if (L + L ) = (K + K ) – (U + U ) b A B b A B b A B changes in are equal to changes in potential energy

change in kinetic energy change in potential energy ( b(KA + KB) b UA + UB) A B A B

by/2 p by momentum by A p B by/2 bt bt over both segments y is increased on average by by/2 slope increases slope decreases by by/bt by by/bt bUA = mg by/2 and bUB = mg by/2 by by bv = + bv = – b(UA + UB) = mg by A bt B bt

1 since K = mv2 2 bK = mv bv = p bv to get no change in action set changes in kinetic and potential energy equal:

b(UA + UB) = mg by b(K + K ) = p bv + p bv bp A B A A B B b(K + K ) = – by A B bt by b(K + K ) = (p – p ) A B A B bt bp by bp = – mg b(K + K ) = – bp = – by bt A B bt bt Newton’s Law is the condition for the action not to vary Figure 3. From least action to Newton.

January 2005 P HYSICS E DUCATION 31 J Ogborn andEFTaylor energy function U(y) is given by the expression action is unvarying with respect to such a worldline mgy and the Lagrangian L becomes shift. Take first the change in potential energy. As = − = 1 2 − L K U 2 mv mgy can be seen in figure 3, the average change in y along both parts A and B due to the shift δy in with the v in the y-direction. the centre point is δy/2. The football is higher up Now look at figure 3, which plots the vertical by δy/2 in both parts of the segment of worldline. position of the centre of a rising and falling football Thus the total change in potential energy is as a function of time. This position–time curve is called the worldline. The worldline stretches from δ(UA + UB) = mg δy. (6) the initial position and time—the initial event of launch—to the final event of impact. Suppose that Thus we have the change in the sum of potential the worldline shown is the one actually followed , i.e. the second term in equation (5). An by the football. This means that the value of the easy first wrestling move! action along this worldline is a minimum. Getting the first term, the change in the sum Now use scientific martial arts to throw the of kinetic energies, needs a trifle more agility. problem onto the mat in one overhand flip: If the The effect of the shift δy in the centre point of action is a minimum along the entire worldline the worldline is to increase the steepness of the with respect to adjacent worldlines, then it is a worldline in part A, and to decrease it in part minimum along every segment of that worldline B (remember the end points are fixed). But the with respect to adjacent worldlines along that steepness of the worldline (also the graph of y segment. ‘Otherwise you could just fiddle with against t) is just the velocity v in the y-direction. just that piece of the path and make the whole And these changes in v are equal and opposite, as integral a little lower.’ (Feynman 1964, p 19-8). can be seen from figure 3. In parts A and B the So all we have to do is to ensure that the action is velocity changes by a minimum along any arbitrary small segment. δy δy We take a short segment of the worldline and δvA = δvB =− . δt δt vary the y-position of its centre point, shifting it up by a small amount δy. Then we demand the But what we want to know is the change in the condition that such a shift does not change the kinetic energy. Since action along the segment (leaving the end-points K = 1 mv2 fixed). 2 We consider the change in the action over the then for small changes two parts A and B of the segment, which occupy equal times δt. The change in the action is δK = mv δv = p δv.

δSAB = δSA + δSB = (δLA + δLB)δt. Thus we get for the sum of changes in kinetic energy Since δt is fixed, the only changes that are = those in δLA and δLB. These are δ(KA + KB) pAδvA + pBδvB or, remembering that the changes in velocity are δLA = δ(KA − UA)δLB = δ(KB − UB). equal and opposite, Rearrange the terms to write their sum as δy δ(KA + KB) = (pA − pB) . δ(LA + LB) = δ(KA + KB) − δ(UA + UB). (5) δt The change in momentum from part A to part B It remains to see how the two sums KA + KB and of the segment is the change δp = pB − pA. UA + UB change when the centre of the worldline Thus the total change in kinetic energy needed for is shifted by δy. We shall require the changes to equation (5) is simply be equal, so that the change in the action, which is their difference multiplied by the fixed time δp δ(K + K ) =− δy. (7) interval δt, then vanishes, and we know that the A B δt

32 P HYSICS E DUCATION January 2005 Quantum physics explains Newton’s laws of motion Now for the final throw to the mat! conservative —where all can be Equation (5) says that if the changes of kinetic gotten from a potential function." (Feynman 1964, energy (from equation (7)) are equal to the changes p 19-7). dissipates organized mechanical in the potential energy (from equation (6)) then energy into disorganized internal energy; we are their difference is zero, and the action does not not trying to explain in this change (for fixed δt). Thus we must equate the two article! to find the condition for no change in the action: δp Classical and quantum? − δy = mg δy. δt Let’s get away from the and try to describe how it all works at the fundamental That is, the change in the action is zero if level. Newton’s law fixes the path so that changes δp in phase from changes in kinetic energy exactly =−mg. match those from changes in potential energy. δt This is the modern quantum field theory view In the special case chosen, mg is the gravitational of forces: that forces change phases of quantum in the negative (downward) direction. In the amplitudes. We see it here in elemental form. limit of small segments this result becomes What Newtonian physics treats as cause and effect (force producing ) the quantum ‘many dp F = Newton’s Second Law. paths’ view treats as a balance of changes in dt phase produced by changes in kinetic and potential energy. It’s all over: the problem lies at our feet! The force So finally we have come all the way from must be equal to the rate of change of momentum. the deepest principle of nonrelativistic quantum Newton’s law is a consequence of the principle mechanics—Explore all paths!—to the deepest of least action, which is itself a consequence of principle of classical mechanics in a conservative quantum physics. potential—Follow the path of least action! And What about a more general potential energy from there to the classical mechanics taught in function? To begin with, every actual potential every high school. The old of the classical energy function is effectively linear for a small increment of . So the above analysis world come straight out of the new truths of the still works for a small enough increment along quantum world. Better still, we can now estimate every small segment of every actual potential the limits of accuracy of the old classical truths. energy function. By slightly modifying the derivation above, you can show that the general Half-truths we have told case leads to In this article we have deliberately stressed an dU dp − = y important half-, that every quantum object dy dt (a photon, an electron etc) is significantly like where −dU/dy is the more general expression every other quantum object: namely, that all for force, and we have added the subscript y to obey the same elemental quantum command Try the momentum, since the motion took place up ! But if electrons as a behaved and down along the y-axis. For three-dimensional exactly like photons as a group, no atom would motion there are two more of similar exist and neither would our current , our form, one for the x-direction and one for the , our Earth, nor we who write and read this z-direction (and, to be technically correct, the article. of U becomes a partial derivative with The Try everything! half-truth does a good job respect to that coordinate). of describing the motion of a single photon or a “I have been saying that we get Newton’s single electron. In that sense it is fundamental. law. That is not quite true, because Newton’s But the behaviour of and the structure of law includes nonconservative forces like friction. depend respectively on collaboration among Newton said that ma is equal to any F . But photons and collaboration among electrons. And the principle of least action only works for collaboration is very different between electrons

January 2005 P HYSICS E DUCATION 33 J Ogborn andEFTaylor and between photons. Photons belong to the group terms of x rather than v and t, using v = x/t. This , electrons to the group fermions. Bosons gives tend to cluster in the same state; fermions avoid mx2 occupying the same state. Number of rotations n = . 2ht If two come to the same final state, the same result must come from If x is large and increases by a small amount δx, interchanging the two particles—that is the the number of rotations increases by consequence of identity. The Try mx δx δn = (neglecting terms in δx2). everything! command has to include the command ht ‘Add up the arrows for both processes.’ If the We now introduce the wavelength. Provided that particles are bosons, the arrows are the same and λ  x, we can say that δn = 1 rotation when just add, doubling the amplitude (and multiplying δx = λ. That is the probability by four). We summarize by saying mxλ that photons ‘like to be in the same state’; this 1 = . ht is why lasers work (and also why we experience = radio-frequency streams of photons as if they were Writing v x/t and rearranging gives the de radio waves). But if the particles are fermions, the Broglie relationship arrows combine with reversal of phase. Now the h λ = . amplitude to be in the same state is zero. That’s mv why electrons obey the Pauli exclusion principle; why electrons in an atom are in different states. Received 15 September 2004 The structure of our world and our observation of doi:10.1088/0031-9120/40/1/001 it both depend on this difference between the group behaviour of photons and the group behaviour of References electrons. Feynman R P 1964 The Feynman Lectures on Physics vol. II (New York: Addison Wesley) Feynman R P 1965 The Character of Physical Law Acknowledgments (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press) We are indebted to Jozef Hanc for his careful Feynman R P 1985 QED: The Strange Story of Light and Matter comments on a draft of this article. (London: Penguin) Hanc J, Tuleja S and Hancova M 2003 Simple derivation of Newtonian mechanics from the principle of least action Am. J. Phys. 74 386–91 Appendix. The de Broglie wavelength Huygens 1690 Traité de la Lumière facsimile edition We show here that the fundamental expression (1966) (London: Dawsons of Pall Mall) L/h for the rate of rotation of the quantum arrow Ogborn J and Whitehouse M (eds) 2000 Advancing Physics AS as a particle propagates along a path, leads to the (: Institute of Physics Publishing) de Broglie relationship λ = h/mv, in a suitable approximation. We consider a free particle, where the potential energy U = 0 and L = K = 1 mv2: 2 Jon Ogborn directed the Institute of Physics’ Advancing Physics project, mv2 and is Emeritus Professor of Rate of rotation of arrow = . Education, Institute of Education, 2h University of London. Over a time t, the number of rotations of the arrow is 2 = mv Edwin Taylor is a retired member of the Number of rotations n t. Physics Department at the Massachusetts 2h Institute of Technology and coauthor of One wavelength corresponds to the distance x introductory texts in quantum mechanics, and as along which the arrow makes one complete turn. well as interactive software to learn these So we need to express the number of rotations in subjects.

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