Chapter 1 – Introducing quantum mechanics

The origin of quantum mechanics

We have seen how the two discoveries that explained black body radiation while avoiding the ultraviolet catastrophe and the explanation of the photoelectric effect showed:

• Hot objects emit light as though energy comes in tiny packets.
• Light itself arrives as tiny packets that can knock electrons out of atoms.

These ideas forced physicists to abandon the classical view of a continuous world and ultimately led to the development of modern quantum mechanic

In the following chapters we will build on these ideas to reveal a universe far stranger than anyone expected