Originally posted by royalchicken
Thanks muchly! It seems the analytical solution was correct (the polynomials the first site calls 'H' are the 'Ps' I've been going on about). That's actually very interesting; the solutions to the equation correspond to probability distributions of the location of the particle for different energy levels (defined by E).
"In the wavefunction assoc ...[text shortened]... while we deduced those properties from some random equation. I like that continuity.
It also proves that even at zero point there is still energy which means
at absolute zero, the oscillations don't stop, its still moving a bit.
I wonder if anyone will ever figure out a way to overcome that and
actually stop molecular motion completely, bypassing the
quantum oscillation, or overcoming the oscillation I guess would be the
more correct way to put it. I can see where you could have detectors
of sufficient sensitivity to follow the motions of a molecule and match
the energy of motion like carefully timed laser shots that would try to
keep an atom in place. A technique like that is already used to cool
atoms down to microkelvin tempuratures, it was one of the steps
used when they finally got the Einstein-Bose Condensates, remember
all the fuss about them a few years ago? The conglomerate of atoms
all join together at a certain tempurature, a few microkelvin I think and
the wave functions merge and it becomes for all intents and
purposes one giant atom of the same stuff. That is freaky.