Today is the climax of the week…or so I hope. Of the many videos and lectures I've watched, including ones from Stanford, Yale, Oxford, and MIT, this, in my humble opinion, is the best. But, as I watch it for the third or fourth time, I wonder if I extrapolated parts of other videos to what I thought was in this one.
It is an introductory class of an undergraduate course on quantum physics. The professor is an amazing teacher. Unfortunately it is long, about an hour. Also, there are formulas. I urge you, however, to be patient. If you don't have the time, pause it, sleep your computer and come back to it. If you are confused by the formulas or some of the terminology, don't worry. The lecture will return to more understandable matters. Plus, if you watch it more than once, you will soon understand the math. The video also gives you a good idea of how schools are approaching quantum physics today.
There are a few terms used which we haven't covered.
Pauli exclusion principle: Certain particles, like electrons, can not be at the same place at the same time, with the same 'quantum state' (or spin). This is why only 2 electrons can occupy the lowest shell (there are two different 'spins') and the third electron must be at a higher energy level shell.
canonically conjugate pairs (my favorite): In Newtonian physics this refers to mathematical variables where one is the derivative of the other. For example linear momentum is the derivative of its action with respect to its position.
Hamiltonian mechanics: This is a method of calculation in classical physics using coordinates and momentum.
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