eCosmology

How does quantum mechanics disobey the laws of nature?

I just learned that particles, molecules, atoms at the molecular level will behave in ways that go against our common sense and logic. I don't understand why molecules can disobey the laws of the universe that we are all forced to obey. Can someone please simply explain this to me?

Public Comments

1. They disobey macroscopic logic. Atoms and nuclei have small masses and small sizes, so according to certain laws they can be in two places, have uncertain momenta, and exist as wave-functions, via the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principal. It is basically because they are small and come in discrete energy amounts.
2. Modern science exists because we do not understand the laws of the universe. Quantum mechanics goes against Newtonian physics and the theory of relativity. Since that's all most people know about, the quantum level doesn't seem to make sense. If you are really interested in this stuff you should read "An Elegant Universe." Its an amazing book that explained this all to me.
3. "our common sense and logic" is not the same as "the laws of nature". At a level of molecules and atoms, you could imagine atoms as big red balls. But if we dive in deeper, to quantum, the particles are just points in space with several numeric values. And some don´t even have a point in space. And some may change into others. We can hardly visualize this.
4. Quantum mechanics is a law of nature too! But it disobeys the old or classic laws of nature. Quantum mechanics is valid for all particles. Small or big. It gives many freedoms to small particles. The smaller the more freedoms. But big particles have to obey the classic laws of nature.
5. This basically relates to the quantum mechanics concept of wave-particle duality. We are used to thinking that particles such as atoms and molecules behave one way, and that waves such as light behave another way, but in actual fact we can't classify things as being either waves or particles as they show signs of being both. Most things will appear to be either one or the other when we look at the bigger picture, so we are used to thinking of atoms as being a particle, but they can also behave like waves. The mass and wavelength of the thing in question determines what it appears to be - something with a big mass appears to behave like a particle, something with a big wavelength appears to behave like a wave, but in actual fact everything is a bit of both, so the normal "rules" that apply to particles don't always apply since they don't always behave like particles.
6. The Schrodinger equation is a mathematical conversion from quantum to classical levels. It indicates the difference in how natural laws function at each level. There is no contradiction.
7. At a level smaller than the molecular level, Richard Feynman, one of the most reknown physicists, explained that "all we do is draw little arrows". So submolecular particles may in some ways be represented by little spinning arrows. The rules of interaction between little arrows are not the same as the common sense rules of point particles or marbles or bullets. The arrow-particles obey the rules of quantum mechanics.