Mastodawn

Jun 25, 2025

If, hypothetically, a nerd wanted to code a hydrogen atom simulator (i.e. a proton plus the electron field (yes, QM) with an s orbital)... What would be an acceptable granularity for approximating the electron field with a grid?

Obviously the Planck length is WAY too small. Is the size of a proton per cubic cell acceptable? Or would that lead to too large approximation errors and/or too much memory usage?

I guess I... I mean, the nerd... Could also approximate it using spherical coordinates, but I'd like to expand it to atoms with higher nuclear charge in the future (approximating the nucleus as a single point), and the other orbitals seem like they would be really awkward in spherical coords.

I mean they. Not me. Definitely not me.

Also how much memory would they need to fit, say, a carbon atom's entire electron cloud, using the granularity determined above? (To within 99% probability)?

#simulation #physics #quantum_mechanics

tomsharp Feb 2, 2025

In 1925, mathematicians Heisenberg, de Broglie, and Schrödinger established wave-particle duality as the basis of quantum theory. #Poetry #Science #History #Quantum_mechanics #QuantumTheory #Heisenberg #deBroglie #Schrödinger (https://sharpgiving.com/thebookofscience/items/p1925b.html)

1925: Wave-particle duality - The book of science

In 1925, mathematicians Heisenberg, de Broglie, and Schrödinger established wave-particle duality as the basis of quantum theory.

tomsharp Aug 5, 2024

In 1900, Max Planck managed to convince himself that heat is quantized. Later, Albert Einstein showed that light is also bundled into tiny quanta, which we call photons. This was the beginning of Quantum Theory. #Poetry #Science #History #Quantum_mechanics #Planck (https://sharpgiving.com/thebookofscience/items/p1900.html)