Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Conversation
The Conversation
Sophya Garashchuk, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of South Carolina

100 years ago, Schrödinger’s equation shed light on quantum physics – scientists use it today to fine-tune chemical reactions

At the quantum level, particles act like waves rather than discrete points. GarryKillian/iStock via Getty Images

The objects you interact with every day are predictable – you can pick up a box, sit down in a chair without falling to the floor, or open a door without your hand passing through the knob. But if you zoom in on these objects all the way to the quantum level – where you look at the individual atoms – you’ll find that things start to behave somewhat strangely.

The typical size of quantum objects is a nanometer, or one-billionth of a meter. For scale, a human hair is 60,000-100,000 nanometers wide. At the nanoscale level, you cannot know where exactly a particle is in space – you can only calculate a probability of where it might be.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.