23 April 20

My tie blog takes a quantum leap today! This single entry is the smallest unit by which my records can "jump to the next level," so it is a good demonstration of a quantum, the fundamental concept in quantum mechanics (in physics).  In common usage it's fashionable to use "quantum leap" to refer to a major, revolutionary shift, but its fundamental reference is to the smallest allowed change. German physicist Max Planck (1858-1947) was born on this date. He suggested the "quantum hypothesis" in 1900 to explain some of the properties of light, where we observe that light energy is transmitted only in discrete bundles (at the ultramicroscopic level), not in a smooth, continuous stream. My tie illustrates that bundling with small blue and pink boxes all over the solid background. I'm including a diagram of the energy levels of the hydrogen atom -- knowledge developed after 1906 -- where the various downward arrows indicate the separate "jumps" electrons can take from "excited states" and the specific amount of energy that's released (as photons) for each path.