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Quiz Quantum Basics: Planck, Heisenberg, particles and atoms

Step into the quantum world: Planck's constant, Heisenberg uncertainty, wave-particle duality, atoms. Eleven verified questions with clear explanations.

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Who introduced the idea that energy is quantized, in 1900?

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  1. Q1. Who introduced the idea that energy is quantized, in 1900?

    • Albert Einstein
    • Max Planck
    • Niels Bohr
    • Werner Heisenberg
    Max Planck proposed that blackbody radiation is emitted in discrete packets E = h·ν, with h ≈ 6.626 × 10⁻³⁴ J·s. He won the 1918 Nobel Prize and is considered the father of quantum theory.

  2. Q2. What does Heisenberg's uncertainty principle say?

    • Everything is random
    • Position and momentum can't both be known with arbitrary precision
    • Light is always a wave
    • Electrons never move
    Formulated in 1927, the principle gives Δx·Δp ≥ ħ/2. It's a fundamental limit, not a measurement flaw — the more precisely you pin down a particle's position, the fuzzier its momentum becomes.

  3. Q3. What did Einstein explain in 1905 that earned him the 1921 Nobel Prize?

    • Special relativity
    • The photoelectric effect
    • Brownian motion
    • General relativity
    Einstein showed light behaves as quanta (photons) with energy E = h·ν, explaining why only certain frequencies eject electrons from metals. This was decisive evidence for wave-particle duality.

  4. Q4. Which particle was discovered by J.J. Thomson in 1897?

    • Proton
    • Neutron
    • Electron
    • Photon
    Thomson identified the electron via cathode ray experiments, the first known subatomic particle. He won the 1906 Nobel Prize. Its charge was later measured by Millikan: about −1.602 × 10⁻¹⁹ C.

  5. Q5. In Bohr's 1913 model of hydrogen, electrons...

    • Move in any orbit
    • Occupy only specific allowed energy levels
    • Float freely in the nucleus
    • Don't exist
    Niels Bohr proposed quantized orbits with angular momentum a multiple of ħ. Transitions between levels emit or absorb photons of specific frequencies, explaining hydrogen's spectral lines.

  6. Q6. What did the famous double-slit experiment demonstrate?

    • Light has no speed
    • Particles like electrons behave as waves
    • Mass cannot be created
    • Atoms are indivisible
    When fired one at a time through two slits, electrons still build up an interference pattern — clear wave behavior. Observing which slit they go through collapses the pattern, the heart of quantum weirdness.

  7. Q7. Who developed the wave equation of quantum mechanics in 1926?

    • Paul Dirac
    • Erwin Schrödinger
    • Wolfgang Pauli
    • Louis de Broglie
    Schrödinger's equation iħ ∂ψ/∂t = Ĥψ describes how a quantum state evolves over time. He shared the 1933 Nobel Prize with Paul Dirac, who extended it to relativistic electrons.

  8. Q8. What is the Pauli exclusion principle?

    • Two photons can never collide
    • No two electrons can share the same quantum state in an atom
    • Energy cannot be created
    • Light travels in straight lines
    Wolfgang Pauli stated in 1925 that fermions (electrons, protons, neutrons) cannot occupy identical quantum states. This is why atoms have shell structure and matter is solid rather than collapsing.

  9. Q9. What is a photon?

    • A heavy nucleus
    • A quantum of electromagnetic radiation
    • A type of electron
    • A neutral atom
    A photon is the massless particle that carries light. Its energy depends only on frequency: E = h·ν. Visible photons have energies around 1.8 to 3.1 electronvolts.

  10. Q10. What proposal did Louis de Broglie make in 1924?

    • Only light is a wave
    • Matter has wave-like properties too
    • Atoms have no nucleus
    • Time slows in gravity
    De Broglie posited that any particle with momentum p has a wavelength λ = h/p. Confirmed by Davisson-Germer's electron diffraction in 1927. Won him the 1929 Nobel Prize.

  11. Q11. Quantum entanglement means that...

    • Particles repel each other
    • Two particles can share a state so measuring one instantly affects the other
    • Particles can travel faster than light
    • Energy disappears in vacuum
    Entangled particles have correlated properties no matter the distance. Einstein called it 'spooky action at a distance'. Alain Aspect's experiments confirmed it; he won the 2022 Nobel Prize.

  12. Q12. What is Schrödinger's cat meant to illustrate?

    • That cats have nine lives
    • The paradox of quantum superposition extended to macroscopic objects
    • How gravity affects animals
    • Conservation of momentum
    Schrödinger's 1935 thought experiment imagines a cat both alive and dead until observed. It dramatizes how strange superposition becomes when applied to everyday-scale objects, exposing the measurement problem.

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