Back to Home

God & Science Forum Message

Forums: Atm · Astrophotography · Blackholes · Blackholes2 · CCD · Celestron · Domes · Education
Eyepieces · Meade · Misc. · God and Science · SETI · Software · UFO · XEphem
RSS Button

Home | Discussion Forums | God and Science | Post
Login

Be the first pioneers to continue the Astronomy Discussions at our new Astronomy meeting place...
The Space and Astronomy Agora
Part Of Post Was Missing.

Forum List | Follow Ups | Post Message | Back to Thread Topics | In Response To
Posted by Alexander on July 11, 2001 18:18:10 UTC

Now let's see what is going on, when a particle passes inside the box WALL. Then E is less than U and k being square root from now negative number becomes IMAGINARY, thus making ikx REAL number, and we have pure exponential dectrease (or increase depending where particle originally was - inside or outside)of probability inside wall. Because exponent never drops to zero, thus there is always a chance to find a particle outside regardless how thick or how strong are the walls. That is the nature and explanation of quantum tunnelling - electrons, protons, alpha particles, atoms and molecules can penetrate via variety of microscopic walls and result in radioactivity, various decay processes, in diffusion, in chemical reactions, etc.

Now, outside of the box particle energy E is greater than potential energy U again, so k is real, ikx is imaginary and sum of exponents results in real harmonic function (sin(kx) or cos (kx)), thus making particle a wave again - as imaginary numbers require.

Follow Ups:

    Login to Post
    Additional Information
    Google
     
    Web www.astronomy.net
    DayNightLine
    About Astronomy Net | Advertise on Astronomy Net | Contact & Comments | Privacy Policy
    Unless otherwise specified, web site content Copyright 1994-2024 John Huggins All Rights Reserved
    Forum posts are Copyright their authors as specified in the heading above the post.
    "dbHTML," "AstroGuide," "ASTRONOMY.NET" & "VA.NET"
    are trademarks of John Huggins