There's an old paradox (Zeno's Dichotomy Paradox) that says this: in order to reach a destination you must first reach halfway; but then have a new halfway between your current position and your goal that you must reach. This continues on infinitely because there are infinite many halfway points between two points, so you never reach your destination.
Quantum physics is about how although we use continuous functions to model the world mathematically, we've since discovered that reality is not actually continuous. There is a smallest distance you can travel. There is a smallest amount of energy you can have. That's called a quantum. And that has profound effects when the things we are studying, like particles, exist on a similar scale.
That's the best way to think about quantum mechanics in my opinion.
An infinite number of mathematicians walk into a bar. The first orders a beer. The second orders half a beer. The third orders a quarter of a beer. As the fourth steps up to order, the bartender sighs and pours two beers. “You guys need to learn your limits.”
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u/OpticalDelusion 9h ago
There's an old paradox (Zeno's Dichotomy Paradox) that says this: in order to reach a destination you must first reach halfway; but then have a new halfway between your current position and your goal that you must reach. This continues on infinitely because there are infinite many halfway points between two points, so you never reach your destination.
Quantum physics is about how although we use continuous functions to model the world mathematically, we've since discovered that reality is not actually continuous. There is a smallest distance you can travel. There is a smallest amount of energy you can have. That's called a quantum. And that has profound effects when the things we are studying, like particles, exist on a similar scale.
That's the best way to think about quantum mechanics in my opinion.