Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context physics English) The branch of physics which studies matter and energy at the level of atoms and other elementary particles, and substitutes probabilistic mechanisms in place of classical Newtonian ones. 2 (context uncountable by extension English) Something overly complicated or detailed.
WordNet
n. the branch of quantum physics that accounts for matter at the atomic level; an extension of statistical mechanics based on quantum theory (especially the Pauli exclusion principle)
Wikipedia
Quantum mechanics (QM; also known as quantum physics or quantum theory), including quantum field theory, is a fundamental branch of physics concerned with processes involving, for example, atoms and photons. Systems such as these which obey quantum mechanics can be in a quantum superposition of different states, unlike in classical physics.
Quantum mechanics gradually arose from Max Planck's solution in 1900 to the black-body radiation problem (reported 1859) and Albert Einstein's 1905 paper which offered a quantum-based theory to explain the photoelectric effect (reported 1887). Early quantum theory was profoundly reconceived in the mid-1920s.
The reconceived theory is formulated in various specially developed mathematical formalisms. In one of them, a mathematical function, the wave function, provides information about the probability amplitude of position, momentum, and other physical properties of a particle.
Important applications of quantum theory include superconducting magnets, light-emitting diodes and the laser, the transistor and semiconductors such as the microprocessor, medical and research imaging such as magnetic resonance imaging and electron microscopy, and explanations for many biological and physical phenomena.
Usage examples of "quantum mechanics".
And the other way is mathematical and, please, youd need to know at least basic quantum mechanics to have a hope of following it.
By the wave/particle duality of quantum mechanics, light can be regarded as both a wave and a particle.
But the first is a statement of special relativity, and the other two are consequences of quantum mechanics (vacuum fluctuations and barrier tunnelling,* they're called).
No physicist today takes seriously any of that metaphysics that sprang up like fungus around quantum mechanics in its early stages.
When she let him go, he went to Anna, who took him by the hand and led him to a group of the others, and soon he was immersed in physics, or quantum mechanics, or whatever the hell they were doing over there.
In effect this was the complete uniting of quantum mechanics and gravity at last, the great problem solved-if it were true.
In effect this was the complete uniting of quantum mechanics and gravity at last, the great problem solved—.
Gravitating naturally toward a career in mathematics and physics, he had studied at some of Europe's most prestigious institutions through the mid and late twenties, a time that had seen the rise of quantum mechanics and which represented, perhaps, one of the most exciting periods in the history of the physical sciences.