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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
quantum
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
quantum computer
quantum leap
▪ There has been a quantum leap in the range of the wines sold in the UK.
quantum mechanics
quantum theory
quantum/great/huge etc leap
▪ a quantum leap very great increase or change in population levels
taken a quantum leap
▪ The treatment of breast cancer has taken a quantum leap forward.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
field
▪ Research in theory and computation encompasses quantum field theories of elementary particles, neural networks and quantum chromodynamics.
▪ Finally there is quantum electrodynamics, which is the quantum field theory of light and charged particles.
▪ The answer to this question takes the discussion deep into the realm of quantum field theory.
▪ There have to be quantum fields with very definite properties of energy, mass and so on.
▪ Capra's parallels are between not hypotheses but concepts, for example the ch'i and the quantum field.
gravity
▪ This, however, is difficult to determine in the case of quantum gravity, for two reasons.
▪ In October 1981, I went to Moscow for a conference on quantum gravity.
▪ We do not yet know the exact form the correct theory of quantum gravity will take.
leap
▪ By placing Franco in overall command, the Nationalists made a quantum leap forward in their efforts to secure victory.
▪ Agricultural technologies have revolutionized farm production, resulting in quantum leaps in output.
▪ The quantum leap expressed itself partly in population levels.
▪ The market is forcing the players to move on in quantum leaps in order to keep their market share.
▪ I think that there are two aspects to the question of a quantum leap in nuclear weapons.
level
▪ It is not the case that absolutely anything can happen at any moment, at the quantum level.
▪ What Heisenberg claims is that not every event, at the quantum level, is sufficiently caused.
▪ How does this affect things when effects at the quantum level get magnified so as to reach the classical level?
▪ We shall only use these strange complex-number combinations at the quantum level.
▪ The quantum level is the level of molecules, atoms, subatomic particles, etc.
▪ We shall be seeing that the complex numbers that we must use at the quantum level are closely related to classical probabilities.
▪ But at the quantum level these terms give important interference effects.
mechanics
▪ In telling you how it works we will have told you about the basic peculiarities of all quantum mechanics.
▪ We have learnt that, according to quantum mechanics, even a single particle must behave like a wave all by itself.
▪ One might expect the fluctuations that are implied by quantum mechanics to give a cosmological constant that is very large.
▪ To understand quantum mechanics, we must come to terms with complex-number weightings.
▪ In such strong fields the effects of quantum mechanics should be important.
▪ Quantum cryptography exploits a key principle of quantum mechanics, according to which certain aspects of any subatomic process are inherently unknowable.
▪ We no more understand how biology emerges from physics than we understand how classical measuring apparatus emerges from quantum mechanics.
▪ Physicists like the mathematical beauty of string theory because it banishes the absurdities that pop up when quantum mechanics and gravity combine.
number
▪ The quantum numbers represent energy levels.
physics
▪ Microchips aid quantum physics Technology from the semiconductor industry has allowed an experiment in fundamental physics previously possible only in theory.
▪ Such people often see their lives more effectively framed by the reality metaphors that modern quantum physics and chaos theory provide.
▪ Tried to explain the real implications of quantum physics as we crossed Kensington Road.
▪ This is because, in the wacky world of quantum physics, light is wavy as well as particulate.
state
▪ Instead, they had a quantum state, which was a combination of position and velocity.
▪ Thus these symbols now denote quantum states.
▪ This picture is that presented by a quantum state.
▪ This collection of complex weightings describes the quantum state of the particle.
▪ We shall also be examining, in some detail, how quantum states are actually described.
▪ Products' can also be taken between any other pair of quantum states, not necessarily single-particle states.
▪ However, it is possible to copy a quantum state if we are prepared to destroy the state of the original.
▪ A single point of Hilbert space now represents the quantum state of an entire system.
system
▪ We are back again to the idea that quantum systems exhibit an unexpected degree of togetherness.
▪ Instead, each Hilbert space dimension corresponds to one of the different independent physical states of a quantum system.
▪ For quantum systems it seems that once they have met there is never true parting.
theory
▪ A divorce is decreed between wave and particle which quantum theory had for ever joined together.
▪ Might not some essential aspects of quantum theory also be playing crucial roles in the physics that underlies our thought processes?
▪ In the quantum theory of gravity, on the other hand, a third possibility arises.
▪ According to quantum theory, elementary particles do not really exist until an intelligent observer measures them.
▪ This tale of parallel realities claims to be based on quantum theory, and is dressed up with suitable jargon.
▪ Using quantum theory to understand gravity makes as much sense as trying solve a crossword puzzle with the key to your door.
▪ It also has the great advantage that many of the infinities that arise in quantum theory cancel each other out.
▪ And yet, the most sophisticated experiments have proved quantum theory correct time after time.
world
▪ Measurement involves an intervention by our everyday world into the quantum world.
▪ But hold on to your hat-there is more strangeness yet in the quantum world!
▪ The microscopic quantum world is imprecise; it is the domain of Heisenberg uncertainty.
▪ This is so that we can attain some genuine understanding of the quantum world.
▪ In particular, how does it come about that the imprecise quantum world yields a precise answer when it is experimentally interrogated?
▪ If you thought that science was invariably characterised by clarity of vision you may have found the quantum world unexpectedly murky.
▪ We have to give that up in the quantum world.
▪ Perplexities A layman venturing into the quantum world no doubt expects to encounter some fairly strange phenomena.
■ VERB
understand
▪ It doesn't really matter if you don't understand relativity and quantum mechanics, or even if these theories are incorrect.
▪ As we now know, quantum theory is needed in order that the actual structure of solids can be properly understood.
▪ Richard Feynman, said to be the greatest theoretical physicist of modern times, stated that no-one understands quantum mechanics.
▪ To understand quantum mechanics, we must come to terms with complex-number weightings.
▪ This is so that we can attain some genuine understanding of the quantum world.
▪ Yet, some day science may give us a more profound understanding of Nature than quantum theory can provide.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Actually, quantum descriptions are very precise, as we shall see, although radically different from the familiar classical ones.
▪ Because string theory has so much symmetry, it can accommodate the disparate faces of nature displayed by gravity and quantum theory.
▪ But at the quantum level these terms give important interference effects.
▪ Contemporary cosmology even suggests that the whole universe might have appeared out of the quantum vacuum: the ultimate free lunch.
▪ Finally there is quantum electrodynamics, which is the quantum field theory of light and charged particles.
▪ In the quantum theory of gravity, on the other hand, a third possibility arises.
▪ Of course, there is nothing intrinsically quantum mechanical in what has been said so far.
▪ The first derives from the quantum theory.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Quantum

Quantum \Quan"tum\, n.; pl. Quanta. [L., neuter of quantus how great, how much. See Quantity,]

  1. Quantity; amount. ``Without authenticating . . . the quantum of the charges.''
    --Burke.

  2. (Math.) A definite portion of a manifoldness, limited by a mark or by a boundary.
    --W. K. Clifford.

    Quantum meruit[L., as much as he merited] (Law), a count in an action grounded on a promise that the defendant would pay to the plaintiff for his service as much as he should deserve.

    Quantum sufficit, or Quantum suff. [L., as much suffices] (Med.), a sufficient quantity; -- abbreviated q. s. in pharmacy.

    Quantum valebat[L., as much at it was worth] (Law), a count in an action to recover of the defendant, for goods sold, as much as they were worth.
    --Blackstone.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
quantum

1610s, "one's share or portion," from Latin quantum (plural quanta) "as much as, so much as; how much? how far? how great an extent?" neuter singular of correlative pronomial adjective quantus "as much" (see quantity). Introduced in physics directly from Latin by Max Planck, 1900; reinforced by Einstein, 1905. Quantum theory is from 1912; quantum mechanics, 1922; quantum jump is first recorded 1954; quantum leap, 1963, often figurative.

Wiktionary
quantum

a. 1 Of a change, sudden or discrete, without intermediate stages. 2 (context informal English) Of a change, significant. 3 (context physics English) Involving quanta. n. 1 (context now chiefly South Asia English) The total amount of something; quantity. (from 17th c.) 2 The amount or quantity observably present, or available. (from 18th c.) 3 (context physics English) The smallest possible, and therefore indivisible, unit of a given quantity or quantifiable phenomenon. (from 20th c.) 4 (context math English) A definite portion of a manifoldness, limited by a mark or by a boundary.

WordNet
quantum
  1. n. a discrete amount of something that is analogous to the quantum in quantum theory

  2. (physics) the smallest discrete quantity of some physical property that a system can possess (according to quantum theory)

  3. [also: quanta (pl)]

Wikipedia
Quantum (disambiguation)

A quantum is the minimum amount of any physical entity involved in an interaction in physics.

Quantum may also refer to:

Quantum (TV series)

Quantum is an Australian television show about science and technology that aired on ABC television for 16 years. It aired its last episode on 26 April 2001, and has been replaced by Catalyst.

Quantum (video game)

Quantum is a color vector arcade game designed by General Computer Corp. for Atari Inc. and released in December 1982. The premise of the game is related loosely to quantum physics in that the player directs a probe with a trackball to encircle atomic "particles" for points, without touching various other particles. Once the particles are surrounded by the probe's tail they are destroyed.

Quantum (album)

Quantum is the third studio album by instrumental rock/ progressive metal supergroup Planet X, released in 2007 (see release history) through Inside Out Music. Guitarist Allan Holdsworth was originally slated to feature on most tracks, but ended up not finishing the project. As a result, his solos remain only on "Desert Girl" and "The Thinking Stone".

Quantum (statistical programming language)

Quantum is a software package and programming language for statistical survey data validation and manipulation and tabulation. Originally developed by Quantime to run on Unix systems, it was incorporated into SPSS Inc.'s SPSS MR product line 1 after its acquisition of Quantime on September 1997.

Quantum

In physics, a quantum (plural: quanta) is the minimum amount of any physical entity involved in an interaction. Behind this, one finds the fundamental notion that a physical property may be "quantized," referred to as "the hypothesis of quantization". This means that the magnitude of the physical property can take on only certain discrete values.

For example, a photon is a single quantum of (visible) light as well as a single quantum of all other forms of electromagnetic radiation, and can be referred to as a "light quantum". The energy of an electron bound to an atom is also quantized, and thus can only exist in certain discrete values. As a result, atoms are stable, and hence matter in general is stable.

As incorporated into the theory of quantum mechanics, this quantization of the energy of electrons and the resulting implications are regarded by physicists as part of the fundamental framework for understanding and describing nature.

Quantum (book)

Quantum: Einstein, Bohr, and the Great Debate About the Nature of Reality is a science history book written by Manjit Kumar. It was released on October 16, 2008.

Usage examples of "quantum".

The most astonishing thing was that her conception of the cosmos was basically the same as the one I had sketched out back at Cal Tech, an infinite number of anthropic universes shuffling and reshuffling, combining on a quantum level.

When the next quantum jump comes, from automated self-servicing machinery that can produce all the goods we want with hardly any human intervention, what happens to the Protestant Ethic?

What Prospero and Caliban, two characters from an ancient Shakespearean play, are doing waiting for us on this real Earth, and why the quantum basis for the entire solar system is being screwed up by these Brane Holes that keep popping up.

The malpractice stuff had been more than enough to seriously disrupt and alter his life, but this criminal nonsense was a quantum leap worse, like throwing salt into a mortal wound.

Nam praesidio e regione castrorum relicto et parva manu Metiosedum versus missa, quae tantum progrediatur, quantum naves processissent, reliquas copias contra Labienum duxerunt.

From the apparently indivisible quanta of physical energy, to the boundaries between the solid, liquid and gaseous states - the manyness of the energy patterns is prevented from becoming one homogeneous and ill-defined spectrum by threshold effects.

Earth will follow after which the Vile Offspring will core the planet like an apple, dismantle it into a cloud of newly formed quantum nanocomputers to add to their burgeoning Matrioshka brain.

Vile Offspring will core the planet like an apple, dismantle it into a cloud of newly formed quantum nanocomputers to add to their burgeoning Matrioshka brain.

Earth will follow -- after which the Vile Offspring will core the planet like an apple, and dismantle it into a cloud of newly formed quantum nanocomputers to add to their burgeoning Matrioshka brain.

Theoretically, no one is directly responsible for my execution, since the immutable laws of quantum theory pardon or condemn me from each microsecond to the next.

Extraordinary modulus of tensile strength approaches quantum limits, enabling use as skyline cable.

For science students and teachers, I hope this book will crystallize some of the foundational material of modern physics, such as special relativity, general relativity, and quantum mechanics, while conveying the contagious excitement of researchers closing in on the long-sought unified theory.

This quixotic quest isolated Einstein from the mainstream of physics, which, understandably, was far more excited about delving into the newly emerging framework of quantum mechanics.

Zero-one silicon switch, zero-one quantum foam bubbling up into prokaryote paramecium parakeet philosopher, what difference does it make?

These are the mysteries of the quanta, but perhaps the most important for us, is the following: Reality does not exist unless it is observed.