What is quantum physics and why is the tiny world so strange?
Quantum's Tiny Party
What is quantum physics and why is the tiny world so strange?
Look closer. Closer. Past the chair, past the dust, past the atoms in the dust — down to where the world stops behaving the way you expect. Down here lives quantum physics: the rulebook for the very tiniest things. And the first thing you should know is that the rulebook is gloriously, hilariously weird.
First, a quick promise about size. Quantum physics is the physics of the unbelievably small — single particles of light, lone electrons, things billions of times tinier than a grain of sand. Big things like you and your dog still obey the comfy old rules. It's only when you shrink down to the very smallest scale that the strangeness switches on.
