Chapter 5 Matter Waves
In Which We Discover the Inevitability of Fuzziness
Reminds us of the things we have learned which we're now going to bring together to investigate wave-particle duality.
Introduces the proposition that the wavelength-momentum relationship we have established for photons may also be relevant to particles with mass: the de Broglie equation.
Evidence from electron diffraction to support the de Broglie hypothesis.
Briefly describes the early Bohr model for electron waves in an atom and how it doesn't really work.
Introduces the idea that the wave associated with a particle of matter describes a probability distribution and, specifically, the Born interpretation of the wave function.
How can a standing wave be localised to a small region of space? Formation of a wave packet by superposition of waveforms with varying wavelength.
The smaller the region of space to which a wave packet is restricted, the bigger the range of wavelengths of the waveforms that must be superimposed.
The uncertainty principle. Exploring the consequences of the trade off between reducing positional uncertainty (by restricting a wave packet to a smaller space) and increasing momentum uncertainty.
The uncertainty principle explains how atoms can exist, without the electrons simply falling in towards the nucleus. Estimation of the size of a hydrogen atom, based on these ideas.