Of Particular Significance

Details Added to Monday’s Article

Picture of POSTED BY Matt Strassler

POSTED BY Matt Strassler

ON 05/01/2024

A couple of days ago, I posted an article describing how the size of a quantum object, such as a proton or electron, can be measured. This isn’t obvious. For example, scientists say that an electron spreads out and is wave-like, and yet that it has no size. This apparent contradiction needs resolution. While I addressed this puzzle in the book‘s chapter 17, I didn’t do so in detail, and so I wrote this article to fill in the gaps.

Now, in response to a reader’s question, I’ve added a section to the end of the article, entitled “Estimating the Object’s Size From Its Excited States”. There I explain in more detail how one goes from simple measurements, which confirm that a proton’s size isn’t zero, to an actual estimate of a proton’s size. The discussion is a little more technical than the rest of the article; you will probably need first-year physics to follow it. But I hope that some readers will find it useful!

Share via:

Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
Reddit

One Response

Leave a Reply

Search

Buy The Book

Reading My Book?

Got a question? Ask it here.

Media Inquiries

For media inquiries, click here.

Related

This is my second post on the subject of why “the speed of light (in empty space)”, more accurately referred to as “the cosmic speed

Picture of POSTED BY Matt Strassler

POSTED BY Matt Strassler

ON 10/03/2024

As promised, the audiobook for Waves in an Impossible Sea, read by Christopher Grove, has finally come available. You can find it on Audible and

Picture of POSTED BY Matt Strassler

POSTED BY Matt Strassler

ON 09/24/2024