Fact Of The Week: It Would Take You More Than The Age Of The Universe To Get A Reasonable Chance At Quantum Tunnelling Through A Wall If You Threw Yourself At A Wall Every Second

Fact of the week: It would take you more than the age of the universe to get a reasonable chance at quantum tunnelling through a wall if you threw yourself at a wall every second.

Quantum physics describes the world as a sea of probability. You cannot identify the position of an electron in an atom, as it is technically a cloud of probability around the nucleus of an atom.

Quantum tunneling is an odd phenomenon where a particle breaks through a barrier, even when it does not have sufficient energy to do so. The probability of a particle, such as an electron, to quantum tunnel is quite high, but as the more massive the object gets, the lower the probability of tunnelling.

Its like trying to go through a (closed) door, and you do not have a sufficient amount of energy to go through the door. The ball bounces back because it does not have enough energy to go through the door. Yet somehow it still manages to go, or tunnel, through the door.

Quantum tunneling is very important, as it sustains the nuclear fusion reactions in the sun, so if it wasn't for quantum tunnelling, the sun would not shine. Also it has a major role in computers, as some transistors use quantum tunnelling.

(below) A diagram of quantum tunnelling I created using Gravit.io.


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