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Sanctuary’s science, spin and songs
by
Bryan Sanctuary
February 11, 2020
The 2D structured spin gives an example which provides a basic understanding of how Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle works. The mathematical basis for this Principle follows because observables in quantum mechanics sometimes do not commute. Examples are position-momentum; energy-time; difference orthogonal components of the angular momentum vector. For spin, the Pauli spin operators […]
February 11, 2020
In the last entry I showed that the two dimensional spin cannot be fully characterized by measurement because of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. This results because when measured, half the states are randomized away. In fact it was concluded that this 2D spin is capable of measurement along each orthogonal […]
February 11, 2020
The wave-particle duality concept is at the heart of the foundations of quantum mechanics. Here I want to show that the 2D spin gives a clear visualization that the wave-particle question comes down to how we look at spins. That is, the wave or particle nature depends upon how we […]
February 11, 2020
Which is harder, chemistry of physics? It is generally accepted that physics is harder because of the math. In fact I am pretty sure that many students opt for chemistry over physics because of the harder math in physics; and life sciences over chemistry for the same reason. Ok, it might […]
February 11, 2020
At McGill like many universities, in large class rooms there is the possibility of lecture recording. I have done this for a number of years teaching my 150 or so Physical Chemistry life science students. Of course there are pros and cons of recording, as noted in the blog by Zimmerman Although the […]
February 11, 2020
The challenge of teaching thermodynamics to physical chemistry life science students is to have them understand the relationships between the macroscopic properties involving heat, work, energy and entropy. After dispelling the myth that energy is stored in chemical bonds; after introducing the concept of temperature, and contrasting it to heat capacity; and […]