Rodriguez 1

Alan Rodriguez

Professor Schaffer

Physics 1010

4. 7. 2018

Reflective Writing : Physics 1010

One of the things I want to touch base on is why I chose quantum mechanics. I remember

watching a few physics videos before the semester began so I could start growing accustomed

with terms and ideas. I realized that I loved every single concept in physics so far presented to

me, but the one thing that peaked my interest the most was Quantum mechanics. I later got to

know that this part of physics is insane and just doesn’t make any sense. I first heard of the

double slit experiment on YouTube and I didn’t anticipate I would have to write a paper on it, so

I simply let it pass and I didn’t do much more research on the concept. This is why when I was

given the opportunity to do more in depth research and learn the history on the subject shot right

into it.

While doing the project one of the things that I didn’t expect was the amount of stints I

had to watch the videos that explained the experiment and the concept of particles acting like

waves and waves acting like particles. Then I did some more digging and I realized that I still

didn’t really grasp the idea and so I kept on doing research on not only the experiment, but the

history of quantum and the double slit experiment. This experiment was what open the door to a

million questions as to why does an electron behave differently when being watched as opposed

to when it’s not?

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I’ve learned that the world is not always as what it looks, and things are far more

complicated than what I would of thought, if one thought we could use common sense to solve a

physics problem let alone a quantum physics problem then we are not going to have fun and

more than likely will end up with a massive headache. What if we let the ego behind and keep an

open mind while reading the book and learning about a certain concept? We more than likely

will learn and enrich our brains with ideas and laws of the world that we otherwise would have

thought impossible or silly, like how could electrons be a wave and a particle at the same time? It

doesn’t make sense? In reality it doesn’t need to make sense for it to be true in this fascinating

world of physics, we have just scratched the surface of certain concepts and as virtuous scientists

we must keep asking why and attempt to refine theories and never accept something as the

absolute truth.
Rodriguez 3