Curious Observer's Guide to Quantum Mechanics

From MRI machines, to quantum dot TVs, to quantum computers, quantum mechanics are starting to pervade our everyday lives. What does it mean to be to technologically literate when knowing quantum mechanics is a prerequisite for understanding our everyday technology? Using no math, in this seven article series I introduce the strangely beautiful effects of quantum mechanics and explain how they’ve come to influence our everyday world. The articles were originally published at arstechnica.com.

1. Curious Observer's Guide to Quantum Mechanics. Wave motion of particles, multiple paths, wavelength and energy, composite particle motion.

2. The Particle Melting Pot. More particle interference, beats, the optical comb and optical clocks.

3. Rose Colored Glasses. Ripples, coherence, and particle length, particle bunching and anti-bunching, uncertainty, bandwidth

4. Looking at the Stars. Particle width, telescopes, interferometers, Hanbury-Brown Twiss.

5. Catching a Wave. Trapped waves, atomic spectra, quantum dots.

6. Quantum Spooks. Polarization, entanglement, deterministic and random measurement sets, quantum encryption.

7. The Quantum Century. The quantum machines that pervade our lives, superconductivity, polarized particles, quantum electronics, MRI machines.

Teaching Guide