Quantum theory has affected technological advances?

[Jimbrady57]

I keep hearing that we wouldn't have the same micro-electric circuts if not for the "advancments" of the quantum theory.

Can someone explain this?

Also, I don't believe the transistor is due to quantum physics...

As far as I know, someone took some silicon "or any semi-conductive metal", then observed that it worked a certain way, then made transistors, then made really small ones.

Isn't the machinery needed to study the quantum world "particle accelerators" highly reliant on this technology "of tiny transister stuff" already being developed?

 

[Bill_K]

I believe it's fair to say that the invention of the transistor is an instance in which laboratory discovery and theoretical understanding played an equally important part.

 

[cosmik debris]

There are many devices which use quantum effects for their operation, but which came first the chicken or the egg? Certainly many devices are the result of "suck it and see" type research. The Josephon junction, high temperature super conductors, and the materials used in the more modern solar panel designs are all the result of the theory.

Where the change over came I have no idea.

 

[Drakkith]

The fundamental understanding of how a semiconductor works is directly from Quantum Physics. When someone discovered that they could use a semiconductor to make a transistor, I doubt they were working directly with Quantum Theory, but after the discovery when people went to explain how it worked they used Quantum Theory.

An understanding of not only quantum physics, but all of science let's us improve and focus on areas and make progress in them. In many cases a single discovery could never have been so influential without an understanding of how the device works and taking that knowledge and modifying it to work better, different, ETC.

In short, I would say that there are discoveries that are independent of understanding Quantum Theory, and ALSO discoveries that are a direct result of that understanding and applying it to produce a desired effect.

 

[ZapperZ]

I keep hearing that we wouldn't have the same micro-electric circuts if not for the "advancments" of the quantum theory.

Can someone explain this?

Also, I don't believe the transistor is due to quantum physics...

As far as I know, someone took some silicon "or any semi-conductive metal", then observed that it worked a certain way, then made transistors, then made really small ones.

Isn't the machinery needed to study the quantum world "particle accelerators" highly reliant on this technology "of tiny transister stuff" already being developed?

I strongly suggest, before you form your "belief", that you read John Bardeen's biography "True Genius: The Life and Science of John Bardeen".

Zz.

 

[Jimbrady57]

Very well, thank you.

 

[Jimbrady57]

Ahh, I see.

Though we may have invented the transistor anyway...

Now we have a theory that "explains" it, which gives us a much better capability to improve and study it.

 

[ZapperZ]

Ahh, I see.

Though we may have invented the transistor anyway...

That is just idle speculation. It isn't a coincidence that Bardeen was a theorist! He was intimately responsible for a lot of the calculation that went into the design of the first transistor. It wasn't simply by trial and error.

Zz.

 

[Drakkith]

That is just idle speculation. It isn't a coincidence that Bardeen was a theorist! He was intimately responsible for a lot of the calculation that went into the design of the first transistor. It wasn't simply by trial and error.

Zz.

Really? Thats interesting. I stand corrected! Thanks Zapperz.

 

[HallsofIvy]

Well, way back in the early 20th century, "crystal" radios were built that used crystals, with electrical wires placed pretty much by trial and error, to amplify the signal. Since no quite understood why they worked, there was no real way to improve them and they were replaced by electron tubes. It was only using quantum mechanics that "crystals" were understood and improved into "transistors".

 

[Vanadium 50]

As far as I know, someone took some silicon "or any semi-conductive metal", then observed that it worked a certain way, then made transistors, then made really small ones.

I strongly suggest, before you form your "belief", that you read John Bardeen's biography "True Genius: The Life and Science of John Bardeen".

Or even the Wikipedia article on the history of the transistor.

The first ones were germanium. More importantly, (the ultra-short version) there were incorrect theories on how to make a transistor in the 20's and 30's, but it wasn't until Bardeen's correct theoretical work before there was progress in the laboratory.

And it's not just the transistor. The laser is quantum mechanical from the get-go; there simply is no classical analog.